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I 



SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 



Similitudes of Christ. 



BY 



LEWIS H. REID. 



J>«<C 




JUN 24 1885, 



fS/J-s-z 



NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH AND COMPANY, 

900 Broadway, cor. Twentieth Street. 



^ ^ s 






Copyright, 1885, 
By Anson D. F. Randolph and Co. 




John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



PREFACE. 



IT has been the writer's custom, in his discourses 
connected with the Communion Service, to hold the 
attention to some particular representation of Christ, 
aiming thereby to avoid repetitions and sameness. 
From the material which has thus accumulated, he 
has selected and rewritten the following, with the hope 
that some of the thoughts presented may be stimulating 
and helpful to others. 

The dying charge which the writer's mother — who 
was well known to many now in the ministry — gave to 
him, was : " Preach the gospel ; preach Christ." 

It is not enough to preach about Christ, or to say 
the same things. It is a mistake to preach platitudes. 
Christ must be presented in His many-sided aspects ; 
and the theme is inexhaustible. It is as if we held to 
our eye a kaleidoscope, every turn of which reveals 
some new assemblage of beautiful colors and forms. 
Many are the figures under which the God-man is pre- 
sented to us in the Scriptures. All are significant, and 
each gives some fresh and enrapturing view of Him 
whom no language can describe. Seeing, as we do, 
through a glass darkly, we can only catch glimpses of 



VI PREFACE. 

His glory. By and by, in the clearer light of heaven, 
we shall see Him as He is. Meanwhile, with the 
seraphic Watts we sing : — 

" Go worship at Immanuel's feet ; 
See in His face what wonders meet ; 
Earth is too narrow to express 
His worth, His glory, or His grace. 

" The whole creation can afford 
But some faint shadows of my Lord ; 
Nature, to make His beauties known, 
Must mingle colors not her own. 

" Is He compared to Wine or Bread? 
Dear Lord, our souls would thus be fed : 
That flesh, that dying blood of Thine, 
Is bread of hfe, is heavenly wine. 

"Is He a Tree ? The world receives 
Salvation from His healing leaves : 
That righteous Branch, that fruitful Bough, 
Is David's root and offspring too. 

" Is He a Rose? Not Sharon yields 
Such fragrancy in all her fields ; 
Or if the Lily He assume, 
The valleys bless the rich perfume. 

" Is He a Vine ? His heavenly root 
Supplies the boughs with life and fruit; 
Oh, let a lasting union join 
My soul to Christ the Living Vine. 



PREFACE. vii 

" Is He the Head? Each member lives, 
And owns the vital power He gives ; 
The saints below and saints above 
Joined by His spirit and His love. 

" Is He a Fountain ? There I bathe, 
And heal the plague of sin and death ; 
These waters all my soul renew, 
And cleanse my spotted garments too. 

" Is He a Fire ? He '11 purge my dross ; 
But the true gold sustains no loss : 
Like a refiner shall He sit, 
And tread the refuse with His feet. 

" Is He a Rock ? How firm He proves ! 
The Rock of Ages never moves ; 
Yet the sweet streams that from Him flow. 
Attend us all the desert through. 

" Is He a Way ? He leads to God ; 
The path is drawn in lines of blood : 
There would T walk with hope and zeal. 
Till I arrive at Zion's hill, 

" Is He a Door? I '11 enter in ; 
Behold the pastures large and green, — 
A Paradise divinely fair ; 
None but the sheep have freedom there. 

" Is He designed a Corner Stone 
For men to build their heaven upon ? 
I '11 make Him my foundation too, 
Nor fear the plots of hell below. 



via PREFACE. 

" Is He a Temple ? I adore 
Th' indwelling Majesty and Power ; 
And still to His most holy place, 
Whene'er I pray, I turn my face. 



" Is He a Star ? He breaks the night, 
Piercing the shades with dawning light 
I know His glories from afar, — 
I know the brisht, the Mornins: Star. 



" Is He a Sun ? His beams are grace, 
His course is joy and righteousness ; 
Nations rejoice, when He appears, 
To chase the clouds and dry their tears. 

" Oh, let me climb those higher skies. 
Where storms and darkness never rise ! 
There He displays His powers abroad, 
And shines and reigns th' incarnate God. 

"Nor earth, nor seas, nor sun, nor stars. 
Nor heaven His full resemblance bears ; 
His beauties we can never trace. 
Till we behold Him face to face." 



CONTENTS. 

» 

PAGE 

I. A Well of Life 13 

II. A Fountain of Cleansing 25 

III. A Physician 37 

IV. A Lamb 49 

V. A Shepherd 61 

VI. A Rock 73 

VII. The Living Bread 83 

VIII. The True Vine 93 

IX. The Door 105 

X. The Way 115 

XI. The True Light 129 

XII. The Rose and Lily 143 



3- Well of JLifz. 



'* I HEARD the voice of Jesus say, 

Behold, I freely give • 

The living water ; thirsty one, 

Stoop down and drink and live. 
I came to Jesus, and I drank 

Of that life-giving stream ; 
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 

And now I live in Him." 



SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST, 



A WELL OF LIFE. 

"And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water." 

Gen. xxi. 19. 
"A well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." 

Song of Solomon, iv. 15. 

T T AGAR in the wilderness is a type of the 
-*■ ^ race. Homeless and hopeless, with no 
water for the child, she " cast him under one of 
the shrubs, and going a good way off hfted up 
her voice and wept." Her extremity was God's 
opportunity; an angel called out of heaven, **Fear 
not ! arise, lift up the lad ; and God opened her 
eyes, and she saw a well of water." So to man, 
despairing and famishing in this wilderness of sin, 
a voice of mercy cries, encouraging words are 
spoken, and a well of life is revealed in Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Prophecy pointed to Him when 
it said, " The parched ground shall become a pool. 



1 6 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

and the thirsty land springs of water ; " ** Ho, 
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." 
Jesus by the well of Sychar said to the woman, 
" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is 
that saith to thee, Give me to drink ; thou wouldest 
have asked of Him, and He would have given thee 
living water." So to the jubilant multitude cele- 
brating the Feast of Tabernacles, and perhaps at 
the very moment when the priest was filling the 
golden vial with water from the fount of Siloam, 
or was bearing it with great solemnity amid the 
clangor of trumpets through the gate of the Tem- 
ple, ** Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man 
thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 

What now is to be said of this gracious well ? 

I. It is near. Water at hand is a convenience; 
it may be as important as life. What Hagar 
needed was water there. Now Christ is this pres- 
ent well. It is said of the man in Bahurim that he 
" had a well in his court." This well is on our own 
premises ; we have not to go to the neighbors, or 
to seek a public fountain. One of the glorious 
names of Christ is Immanuel, — God with us. We 
have not to ascend, or descend, or go; we have 
only to open our eyes and see. It is said of a 
ship's crew whose fresh water failed, that, meeting 



A WELL OF LIFE. 1/ 

another vessel above the mouth of the Amazon, 
they appHed for a supply, when they were told 
they were sailing in fresh water, and had only to 
cast out their buckets and take. So Christ is 
near; we can reach Him with a touch. Hagar 
despaired in opposition to experience, promise, 
and fact. She said, " Let me not see the death 
of the child." She forgot that God saw her, and 
she had no idea that water was near. 

2. This well is easy to draw from. It would 
be tantalizing to have water near, but no way of 
reaching it. The woman of Samaria said, "Sir, 
Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is 
deep." It is not so of this well. It does not re- 
quire contrivances and effort. Neither is it in 
possession of an enemy, to be reached by violence. 
It is not like the well Esek, for which the herdmen 
of Gerar strove, or that of Bethlehem by the gate, 
for whose waters David in the cave of Adullam 
longed. There are those who place processes and 
ordinances between the soul and Christ. Sanctifi- 
cation is a work and growth, but justification is an 
act. Law-works are a hedge about the well. It 
is not the cup so much as the water in it, that one 
needs. We may point to the 8th of Romans, 
but it is better to point to Christ. Spurgeon has 



1 8 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

a most excellent sermon on " The plain man's 
pathway to Peace." He speaks of an old fishwife 
who criticised Bunyan for making Evangelist ask, 
"Do you see that wicket gate? Do you see that 
light?" whereas he should have said, ** Do you 
see Jesus Christ hanging on the cross?" Christ is 
a gift; the gospel is expressed in the two words, 
" Only believe." 

3. This well is free ; it is accessible to all. There 
are no restrictions or limitations in the offer. The 
cry is, '' Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
the waters ; " and lest any may think some price 
is to be paid, it is added, ** And he that hath no 
money, come ye, buy wine and milk without money 
and without price. " " Let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." It is the glory of this well that it invites 
all to partake. It is not the well of the private 
garden ; it is the spring by the wayside. It is not 
the fountain where fashion resorts and money is 
paid ; it is the free, priceless beverage that God 
offers to all. The story is told of a group of little 
girls who sought to find the most precious word in 
all the Bible. It was *' whosoever." 

4. This well is satisfying; its water quenches 
thirst. Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, 



A WELL OF LIFE. 1 9 

"Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst 
again ; but whosoever drinketh of the water that 
I shall give him, shall never thirst." It is a com- 
mon experience that the world cannot satisfy. 
Man has a soul of vast desires, and all that the 
world can offer — riches, honors, pleasures — are 
like stimulants, that increase the thirst and make 
the fever rage the more. Solomon tried all, and 
he cried, " Vanity ! " But he who comes to Christ 
finds all the desires of his soul met. Now he 
sings, — 

" Oppressed with noonday's scorching heat, 
To yonder cross I flee; 
Beneath its shelter take my seat : 
No shade Hke this for me ! 

" Beneath that cross clear waters burst, — , 
A fountain sparkling free ; 
And there I quench my desert thirst : 
No spring like this for me ! " 

5. The water from this well restores; it is Hfe- 
imparting. Not like the waters of Marah which 
needed Moses' tree, or those of Jericho which 
needed Elisha's salt, — it is a divinely opened well, 
full of purity, sweetness, and life. It heals the 
disorders of the soul ; it raises the dying to life. 
The story of Mungo Park's suffering from thirst in 
Africa is familiar : the cattle fighting for the little 



20 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

water that was to be had, or Hcking up the black 
mud from the gutters near the wells; the people 
of the camp but little better suppHed, and none 
more poorly than himself. " At night," he writes, 
" my situation was like that of Tantalus. No sooner 
had I shut my eyes, than fancy would carry me to 
the streams and rivers of my native land. There, 
as I wandered along the verdant bank, I surveyed 
the clear stream with transport, and hastened to 
swallow tjie delightful draught ; but alas ! disap- 
pointment awakened me, and I found myself a 
lonely captive, perishing of thirst amid the wilds 
of Africa." Now, what a discovered well would 
have been to him, that is what Christ is to a perish- 
ing sinner. Oh, the glory of this Christ, whose 
grace is equal to man's greatest peril and direst 

need ! 

" Early, my God, without delay, 
I haste to seek Thy face ; 
My thirsty spirit faints away, 
Without Thy cheering grace. 

" So pilgrims on the scorching sand, 
Beneath a burning sky, 
Long for a cooling stream at hand, 
And they must drink or die." 

6. This well is never dry. It Is not like the wells 
of Judah in the days of Jeremiah, of which it is 



A WELL OF LIFE. 21 

written : " Their nobles have sent their little ones 
to the waters : they came to the pits, and found no 
water; they returned with their vessels empty; 
they were ashamed and confounded, and covered 
their heads." No ; none shall seek this well and 
find it dry. It is more than a Croton, a Fair- 
mount, or a Fountainhead to the greatest city's 
need. Of Fountainhead, Spurgeon bears this 
testimony: *' It is a spring that never fails or 
freezes. In the drought a few years ago which 
dried up long-standing springs, and hushed the 
melody of our brooks, and when wells far and near 
in the neighboring towns gave out, or gave up a 
brackish substitute that only necessity made palata- 
ble, Fountainhead bubbled and boiled, and rolled 
over the white sand just as generously and joyously 
as ever. It pinched no customer; it offered no 
inferior article ; it defrauded neither man nor beast. 
Fountainhead also seems equal to an ever-increas- 
ing demand. New streets require new conduits; 
new houses, new pipes ; and yet old supplies are not 
lessened : there is enough for the new and enough 
for the old. When the steam factory was built all 
the inhabitants around trembled. * Now our cis- 
terns will fail,' they said, ' for the enormous stream 
necessary to work all that machinery must be fed 



22 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

in part at our expense.' Not so. The great steam 
factory whirls its ten thousand spindles, and neither 
tub nor pail, mug nor goblet, kitchen nor parlor, 
man nor beast, has a drop less water than before. 
Then sprang up the gas-works. ' Water for our 
reservoir,' demanded the company. ' Will you 
deprive us of ours?' asked the people in anxiety 
and fear. The pumps are at work ; the reservoir 
slowly fills; but there is just as much left as 
before ; and so morning, noon, and evening from 
a thousand iron mouths, Fountainhead, without 
stint or check, pours its clear, pure, sparkling 
treasures among the busy, toiling multitudes, 
never-failing, as pure as ever, thirst-quenching, 
fever-cooling, and health-giving." But this faintly 
represents the inexhaustible fulness that there is 
in Christ. Far beyond human comprehension 
this onflowing, everflowing, overflowing fountain 
pours forth its bounties over a lost world, as 
broad and deep as the love of "■ Him that filleth 
all in all." 

Precious Saviour, what is this that Thou hast 
done for us? Were we worthy of such love ? But, 
Believer, having drank at this well, drink yet more ; 
quench all your thirst; stint not yourself by occa- 
sional draughts, or by simply tasting, when you 



A WELL OF LIFE. 23 

should quaff the Hving water. Listen to the voice 
of Him who furnishes it: " Drink, yea, drink abun- 
dantly, O beloved ! " He would have you show an 
appreciation of His grace, by a hearty compliance 
with His invitation. 

Many there are who have never drank of the 
living water. It is provided ; they need it ; but 
they are like one in a delirium, who refuses the 
draught that would make him well. Yet '' the 
Spirit and the Bride say. Come ; " God waits to be 
gracious ; and the voice of love and mercy yet 

calls. 

" Poor, sinful, thirsty, fainting souls 
Are freely welcome here ; 
Salvation, like a river, rolls, 
Abundant, free, and clear. 

" Whoever will, — oh, gracious word ! — 
Shall of this stream partake ; 
Come, thirsty souls, and bless the Lord, 
And drink for Jesus' sake. 

" Millions of sinners vile as you 
Have here found life and peace ; 
Come, then, and prove its virtues too, 
And drink, adore, and bless." 



^ jTountaiu of CJeaTi0xn0. 



*' Vile, I to the fountain fly, 
Wash me, Saviour, or I die." 

" To the dear fountain of Thy blood, 
Incarnate God, I fly ; 
Here let me wash my spotted soul 
From stains of deepest dye." 

"Just as I am, — and waiting not 
To rid my soul of one dark blot, 
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,' 
O Lamb of God ! I come ! I come ! " 



II. 

A FOUNTAIN OF CLEANSING. 

" In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of 
David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for unclean- 
ness." — Zech. xiii. i. 

T^HIS is prophecy pointing to Christ. Sin is 
-■- a disease, a moral defilement* But Christ 
came to heal the disease, to remove the defilement. 
Many times, in the Scriptures, sin is spoken of as 
something which corrupts and taints the moral na- 
ture, and Christ is spoken of as a fountain in which 
this uncleanness may be washed away. Under one 
head we read : " How much more abominable and 
filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water." 
''They are all together become filthy." "Purge me 
with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and 
I shall be whiter than snow." *' The whole head 
is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole 
of the foot even unto the head there is no sound- 
ness in it ; but wounds and bruises and putrefying 
sores." " Wash you, make you clean." " We are 



28 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses 
are as filthy rags." ** O Jerusalem, wash thine heart 
from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved." 
Under the other head we read : *' In that day there 
shall be a fountain opened to the house of David 
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for 
uncleanness." " For if the blood of bulls and of 
goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the 
unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; 
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who 
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without 
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God? " " The blood of 
Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
*' According to His mercy He saved us, by the 
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost." " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us 
from our sins in His own blood ... to Him be glory 
and dominion forever and ever." The bloody sac- 
rifices and the ceremonial washings of the old econ- 
omy were typical of Christ. Baptism has the same 
significance. Jesus said, " Except a man be born 
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God." 

The disease and the remedy are in wide contrast. 
Sin is a moral leprosy, a deadly and ingrained 



A FOUNTAIN OF CLEANSING. 29 

distemper of the soul. Physical defilement can be 
washed away, but moral uncleanness is like the 
Ethiopian's skin or the leopard's spots. Of it, it is 
written, *' Though thou wash thee with nitre, and 
take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked." 
'' The sin of Judah is written- with a pen of iron, 
and with the point of a diamond ; it is graven upon 
the table of their heart." To eradicate such lines, 
infinite power and infinite grace were needed, and 
these were found in Christ. Now to those suffering 
from this malady, and using this remedy, the assur- 
ance is given : *' Though your sins be as scarlet, 
they shall be 'as white as snow; though they be 
red like crimson, they shall be as wool." What 
the Jordan was to the leprous Naaman; what 
Bethesda was to the multitude that lay about it; 
what Siloam was to the man bUnd from his birth, 
who went and washed and came seeing ; — that is 
this Fountain to every polluted sinner who wishes 
to be spiritually clean. 

Let us glance at some of the characteristics of 
this Fountain. 

I. It is broad and deep. Human hnes cannot 
measure it. We are told that it has a breadth and 
length and depth and height which passeth knowl- 
edge. It embraces a *' mystery which from the 



30 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

beginning of the world hath been hid in God." 
•' Without controversy, great is the mystery of 
godhness." '* The prophets have enquired and 
searched dihgently," and even " the angels desire 
to look into these things which relate to the suf- 
ferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." 
All that we can say before this stupendous system 
of grace is, 

" Oh the rich depths of love divine, 
Of bhss a boundless store ! " 

or exclaim with the Apostle, " Oh the depth of the 
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! 
how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways 
past finding out ! " In this system are displayed 
the highest attributes of Deity. Wisdom, power, 
and love unite their skill here. 

" Here the whole Deity is known, 
Nor dare a creature guess 
Which of the glories brightest shone, — 
The justice, or the grace." 

2. This Fountain is inexhaustible; it cannot be 
diminished or drained. God, by the prophet Jere- 
miah, says, *' My people have committed two evils ; 
they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, 
and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that 



A FOUNT A IN OF CLEANSING. 31 

can hold no water." The various devices that 
men employ to cleanse themselves from sin — 
law-works, penances, resolutions, ceremonies, — 
are broken cisterns that can hold no water. In 
the gospel scheme, where sin abounds grace much 
more abounds. The supply is adequate because 
infinite love furnishes it ; and all the needs of men 
cannot lessen or impair the fulness that there is in 
God. 

3. This Fountain is perpetual ; it must be perpet- - 
ual if it is inexhaustible. That which never wastes 
must last. So now we think not so much of quan- 
tity as of continuance. From age to age the sup- 
plies of grace are furnished. The fountain is a 
living fountain because it is fed by living springs. 
The river of the water of life proceeds out of the 
throne of God and of the Lamb. To this fountain 
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and confes- 
sors came, and washed their sins away ; and yet it is 
as full, fresh, and free as if it were just now provided 
by the grace of God. Association is something; it 
touches our hearts to think that we come where 
noted men have come before us, — that we follow 
in the line of worthies, and that this Jesus, whose 
blood speaketh better things than that of Abel, is 
the one fountain of cleansing for a lost world. 



32 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

" Hail, everlasting Spring ! 

Celestial Fountain, hail ! 

Thy streams salvation bring, 

Thy waters never fail : 
Still they endure, and still they flow, 
For all our woe a sovereign cure." 

4. Notice the purity of this Fountain. That 
which cleanses must be itself clean. An infinitely 
Holy Being became incarnate to furnish this foun- 
tain. '' For such an high-priest became us, who is 
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." 
" By His own blood He entered in once into the 
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for 
us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the 
ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sancti- 
fieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, 
purge your conscience from dead works to serve 
the living God? " It is a gracious truth that while 
Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, and we 
receive a double cure, our sins bring nothing of 
defilement to Him. He is infinitely pure, and He 
makes pure. 

" Jesus, my God, Thy blood alone 
Hath power sufficient to atone : 
Thy blood can make me white as snow, — 
No Jewish types could cleanse me so." 



A FOUNTAIN OF CLEANSING. 33 

5. This Fountain cleanses from all sin. "The 
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all 
sin." It is efficacious, thorough, complete. It does 
not remove some sins, small sins, — or half remove 
great sins ; it leaves not a stain behind. The soul 
ultimately becomes holy as God is holy. Such are 
the ransomed in their robes of white, and hence 
they cry, " Unto Him that loved us and washed us 
from our sins in His own blood ; " and hence of them 
it is written, " These are they which have washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." It matters not how many or how heinous 
our sins may be : we may be a Saul breathing out 
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of 
the Lord ; we may be a thief on the cross reviling 
the incarnate Deity ; we may be a Manasseh, a Mary 
Magdalene, a John Newton, — yet for the penitent 
grace is adequate, the cleansing is complete. 

" Blest be His wounded side, 

And blest His bleeding heart, 

Who all in anguish died, 

Such favors to impart. 
His sacred blood shall make us clean 
From every sin, and fit for God." 

" There is a fountain filled with blood 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins ; 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
Lose all their guilty stains." 
3 



34 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

6. This Fountain is ample for all. " The free 
gift came upon all men ; " " He died for all ; " "A 
ransom for all; " "That He should taste death for 
every man ; " '' And He is the propitiation for our 
sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of 
the whole world." This Fountain offers its benefits 
alike to Jew and Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond 
and free. It is not like the pool at Jerusalem 
around which the impotent lay waiting for the 
moving of the waters, and with regard to which 
the man who had an infirmity thirty and eight 
years had to say, *' Sir, I have no man, when the 
water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but 
while I am coming, another steppeth down before 
me." These waters are always troubled ; the angel 
is always here. Oh, what love is this, that leaves 
out none in its provisions of mercy ! Let the cry 
go out, — sound it everywhere, — 

" Come to Calvary's holy mountain, 
Sinners ruined by the fall : 
Here a pure and healing fountain 
Flows to you, to me, to all." 

7. The provision of such a Fountain impHes a 
duty, — the duty to come to it and be healed. 
As it is for all, and each needs it, no one should 
neglect to secure the good which it offers. Now, 



A FOUNTAIN OF CLEANSING. 35 

the Opportunity to escape from the malady and 
defilement of sin is yours. But if you scorn this 
grace you will die in your uncleanness, and the 
irrevocable sentence will go forth concerning you, 
*' Let him be filthy still." 

8. If cleansed, we should confess the Healer. 
With Naaman, we should not only make large 
ofi'erings of thankfulness, but also pledge ourselves 
that " henceforth we will ofi'er neither burnt offer- 
ing nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the 
Lord ; " or with the grateful leper, seeing what 
has been wrought in us, '' turn back," as it were, 
" and with a loud voice glorify God." This we 
can do by following Christ and by publicly con- 
fessing His name. 

9. How easy are the terms of salvation ! It is 
no '' great thing" that God requires of us. It is 
simply, " Wash, and be clean." He makes the 
provision ; He supplies the fountain ; He takes the 
guilt away. Strange, then, that men will cry, " Are 
not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better 
than all the waters of Israel ? May I not wash in 
them and be clean? " 



^ it)])0xmtt. 



" How lost was my condition 

Till Jesus made me whole ! 
There is but one physician 

Can cure a sin-sick soul. 
The worst of all diseases 

Is light, compared with sin ; 
On every part it seizes, 

But rages most within. 

*' From men great skill professing, 

I thought a cure to gain ; 
But this proved more distressing, 

And added to my pain. 
Some said that nothing ailed me, 

Some gave me up for lost ; 
Thus every refuge failed me, 

And all my hopes were crossed. 

" At length this great Physician — 

How matchless is His grace ! — 
Accepted my petition, 

And undertook my case. 
Next door to death He found me, 

And snatched me from the grave, 
To tell to all around me 

His wondrous power to save. 

" A dying, risen Jesus, 

Seen by the eye of faith. 
At once from danger frees us. 

And saves the soul from death. 
Come, then, to this Physician, 

His help He '11 freely give ; 
He makes no hard condition, — 

'T is only look and live." 



III. 

A PHYSICIAN. 

" Is there no balm in Gilead ; is there no physician there ? " — 
Jer. viii. 22. 

" And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need 
not a physician ; but they that are sick," — Luke v. 31. 

OIN, as a disease, is both an epidemic and a con- 
tagion. It infects all through a liability to it 
in the soul itself, and it is communicated by con- 
tact. We inherit a depraved nature ; while teach- 
ing, influence, and example have much to do with 
the degree of depravity that we exhibit. Sin, too, 
like variolous diseases, is loathsome and malignant. 
It corrupts the entire nature, and, unless divine 
help interpose, it issues in death. " Thus saith the 
Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is 
grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that 
thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast no healing 
medicine." The symptoms of this disease appear 
in a rebellious will, a proud heart, a seared con- 
science, — in depraved appetites, violent lusts, and 
malignant passions. The works of the flesh are 



40 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

enumerated in the ist of Romans and the 5th of 
Galatians. Conscious of inbred sin, each must 
say,— 

*' Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin, 
And born unholy and unclean ; 
Sprung from the man v^^hose guilty fall 
Corrupts the race and taints us all." 

We would be more appalled by the deadliness 
of our condition, only that we Hve in the infected 
district, and are ourselves diseased. Disease that 
fastens upon the body is less to be dreaded, for 
it can destroy only the mortal part; but sin kills 
beyond the tomb. 

Now, to relieve man of this malady Christ has 
come. We are like the Jews in the wilderness 
bitten by the fiery serpent. But infinite love has 
sought us, and there is life in a look, Christ is 
the balm in Gilead ; He is the great physician ; He 
came to seek and to save the lost. It is pleasant 
to think of Christ as a man, as one who comes to 
us in a personal form to do us good. 

What are some of the characteristics of this great 
Physician ? 

I. He is distinguished for ability. This is a 
prime quaHty. * We require of an earthly phy- 
sician that he shall have natural talents and a 



A PHYSICIAN. 41 

medical education. He must be a man of wisdom 
and experience. He must be quick to discern 
and skilful to apply. He must possess large intel- 
ligence and be furnished with such professional 
equipments as the most difficult cases require. 
Now, Christ is more than it is possible for us to 
imagine. The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in 
Him. " He knew all men, and needed not that 
any should testify of man ; for He knew what was 
in man." Infinite wisdom and skill united in Him. 
In His human form He was literally a physician to 
the minds and bodies of men. He cast out devils ; 
He healed the sick ; He raised the dead. 

" Where'er He went, affliction fled, 
And Sickness reared her fainting head. 
The opening ear. the loosened tongue, 
His precepts heard, His praises sung. 

" Despairing madness, dark and wild. 
In His inspiring presence smiled; 
The storm of horror ceased to roll, 
And reason lightened through the soul. 

■^^ith bounding steps the halt and lame, 
To hail their great Deliverer came ; 
O'er the cold grave He bowed His head, 
He spake the word, and raised the dead." 

But what He did for the bodies of men was slight 
compared with what He does for the souls of men. 



42 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST, 

It was as easy for Him to say, *' Thy sins be for- 
given thee," as to say, ** Take up thy bed and 
walk." His real mission was not to heal physical 
diseases, but to rescue men from the power and 
guilt of sin. The wonderful works were the proofs 
that God was with Him, and at the same time the 
expression of His desire to do good to men. He 
might have cast mountains into the sea, He might 
have amazed. He might have deprived of power; 
but He chose to make His miracles acts of grace. 
His human life was short ; but it was long enough 
to show the grandeur of His character, and to ac- 
complish in man's behalf the work that had been 
given Him to do. On the cross He said, " It is 
finished." Virtue went out of Him toward a sin- 
smitten race ; and so by that crowning act and 
" one offering He hath perfected forever them that 
are sanctified." 

2. The great Physician is near. How often has 
one hastened with anxious heart to a physician's 
door and found the physician away. Instant re- 
lief is necessary, and perhaps in the delay the sick 
one dies. What advantage is it to know of one 
eminent in his profession if his services cannot be 
had? If distance or absence, the darkness of the 
night or the condition of the roads, or any other 



A PHYSICIAN. 43 

cause prevent his coming, it is as if he had not 
skill, or were not known. It is aggravating, too, to 
be in need and seek aid that you cannot obtain. 
But the great Physician is always near. He has 
office hours for a Nicodemus at night. He is not 
so taxed by some that He must keep others wait- 
ing. He is like a physician in the family, ready to 
prescribe the moment we are ill. Our malady is 
threatening, but He is present with the help and 
healing that we need. We have not to go out to 
find Him; we can reach Him with a touch or a call. 
** Say not in thy heart. Who shall ascend into 
heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from 
above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? 
(that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)" 
The Word is nigh; the Healer is present; He asks, 
*^ What wilt thou?" 

3. Jesus is a tender and sympathizing Physician. 
What sunlight do some physicians bring in their 
countenances into a sick chamber ! They look so 
pleasant and speak so cheerfully, they seem to 
bear the case of their patients so much upon 
their hearts, they are so tender and sympathetic, 
that their visit is itself a tonic. And when pain is 
to be borne they seem to feel it so much them- 
selves that the real sufferer bears it with greater 



44 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

courage. Now, such a physician is Jesus Christ. 
To understand our state, He took upon Himself our 
nature. *' It behooved Him to be made Hke unto 
His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faith- 
ful high-priest in things pertaining to God, to make 
reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in 
that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He 
is able to succor them that are tempted." The 
physician who has had no personal experience of 
sickness cannot be so sympathetic as one who has 
been himself in the patient's place. Then, further, 
Christ is like a physician who dies for others' good. 
The self-sacrifice of a French physician is spoken 
of, who when the pestilence was raging, for the 
sake of finding if possible some cure, shut himself 
up with a dead body and jotted down his exami- 
nations till death overtook him at his work. Our 
great Physician literally took our place, and died 
that we might live. "■ The chastisement of our 
peace was upon Him ; and with His stripes we are 

healed." 

" This was compassion like a God, 
That when the Saviour knew 
The price of pardon was His blood, 
His pity ne'er withdrew." 

4. The great Physician demands no pay. Earthly 
skill must have remuneration. Men live by their 



A physician: 45 

professions. Sometimes in difficult cases large 
sums are charged. Sometimes the sick for want of 
means are left to suffer. The woman twelve years 
diseased spent all her living seeking recovery, and 
only grew worse. Then she came to the great 
Healer and was freed from her plague. The readi- 
ness with which Jesus restored incurables and 
raised the dead indicates the freeness of His grace 
to all. Sin is a most direful malady, it is beyond 
human remedies, it brings infinite loss; yet Jesus 
removes the disease and accepts no pay. He is a 
divine being and need not; He is a gracious being 
and will not. 

But there are some things necessary to secure 
the aid of this great Physician. 

1. We must be sick. ''They that are whole 
need not a physician ; but they that are sick." An 
earthly physician is not asked to prescribe for 
people in health. His studies, instruments, visits, 
are in the line of his profession ; his aim is to cure. 
If men were not sick and lost, then Christ would not 
have come to earth to heal and save them. The 
fact of His coming suggests our state and need. 

2. We must know that we are sick. If one is ill 
but does not know it, he takes no medicine. To 
receive benefit from Christ we must feel our need 



46 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

of Him. To insist that we are whole, is to cast 
contempt upon the great Healer. It is to contra- 
dict His word, deny His mission, and refuse His 
grace. It is in the nature of sin to pervert the 
judgment; and so, as in the disorders of a fever, 
large numbers think themselves well. Such was 
Paul, " while alive without the law." Such was the 
Pharisee, who went up into the Temple to pray. 
Such were the Laodiceans, who said, " We are 
rich, and increased with goods, and have need of 
nothing; " and such are all they who deny de- 
pravity, and trust in themselves that they are right- 
eous. A conscious vileness is the first step toward 
a renovated life. The Church is a hospital ; Christ 
is the resident Physician ; and all who enter there 
come not as well persons, but as the " wounded, 
sick, and sore." Think of a sick man saying, " I 
will not be carried to the hospital ; I will w^ait till 
I have recovered from this lameness, this wound, 
or this disorder, and I will walk in." We mis- 
apprehend our relations to Christ, if we are not 
wilHng to admit our sinful and lost condition. 

3. We must submit the case. Knowledge of sick- 
ness and knowledge of the physician do not cure. 
Physicians come in answer to our call. They do 
not force their attentions; they prescribe when 



A PHYSICIAN. 47 

they are asked to do so. So the great Physician 
expects us to call upon Him that we may be saved. 
He does not compel us to accept His grace. He 
would have us agonize and be violently in earn- 
est to obtain His help. The importunity of the 
Syrophoenician woman, the urgency of Bartimeus, 
the entreaty of Jairus, indicate the earnestness with 
which divine aid is to be sought. 

4. We must follow the prescriptions. The best 
remedies are good for nothing if they are not 
used. The man who will not take medicine de- 
serves to die. So, submitting ourselves to Christ, 
we must do what He bids. His methods are some- 
times hard, painful, and trying. He mingles the 
bitter draught; He appHes the cutting knife; He 
forbids, the harmful viand. But it is by these 
means that He would make us well. 

Now, what reason have we to rejoice and give 
thanks that this Physician has appeared? If the 
inhabitants of a city where the plague was raging 
should learn that a personage had arrived with a 
positive cure, would they not receive him with de- 
light? So should a dying and lost world welcome 
Christ's coming. Appreciating our state, and hav- 
ing knowledge of the cure and Curer, well may we 
sing, " Joy to the world ! " or shout with the angels, 



48 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

" Glory to God ! " And as the inhabitants of that 
city would flock about the remarkable visitor to 
express their gratitude, and to avail themselves of 
his knowledge and skill, so should a grateful and 
wondering world gather about the cross to welcome 
the great Healer, and receive from Him a knowl- 
edge of His divine discovery and the application of 
that remedy which gives life to the soul. 

'■' Thou great Physician of the soul, 
To Thee I bring my case ; 
My raging malady control, 
And heal me by Thy grace. 

" Help me to state my whole complaint; 
But where shall I begin ? 
Nor words, nor thoughts, can fully paint 
That worst distemper — sin. 

" Thou great Physician, hear my cry, 
And set my spirit free ; 
Let not a trembling sinner die, 
Who lonofs to live to Thee." 



^ mmb, 



= Exalt the Lamb of God, 
The sin-atoning Lamb ! 

Redemption by His blood, 
Through every land proclaim.' 



IV. 

A LAMB. 



" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
world ! " — John i. 29. 



T AMB is the favorite name for the Saviour. 
■^^^ He is called by many names, but this is the 
choicest. Rock, Door, Light, Fountain, — but the 
name He goes by in heaven is Lamb. In the Book 
of Revelation He is spoken of twenty-seven times 
by the name Lamb. The white-robed are repre- 
sented as standing before the throne and before 
the Lamb, with a loud voice saying, " Salvation to 
our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb." It is their song that we take up and 
echo back from earth to heaven : — 



" Worthy the Lamb that died, they cry, 
To be exalted thus ; 
Worthy the Lamb, our lips reply, 
For He was slain for us." 



52 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

In the Gloria in Excelsis the words occur, " O 
Lord, the only begotten Son Jesus Christ ; O Lord 
God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest 
away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us ! 
Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have 
mercy upon us ! Thou that takest away the sins of 
the world, receive our prayer ! " Thus three times 
the truth is recognized that it is the *' Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the world." The 
quintessence of the gospel is contained in the word 
Lamb. Under no other figure do v/e get so complete 
an idea of the Atonement. The slain lamb was 
the central figure of the whole Jewish economy, and 
this prefigured Christ. So, is it strange that John, 
in seeing Jesus, should say, *' Behold the Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sin of the world " ? 
There was immense meaning in those words, ut- 
tered before He appeared in the world, — "A body 
hast Thou prepared Me." Was it not that He might 
be a slain Lamb? So, when we go up to heaven 
we are going to " the marriage supper of the Lamb." 
And when we sing the song of victory, it is to be 
the song of Moses and the Lamb. 

I. Christ was a lamb in meekness. *' He was 
oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened 
not His mouth : He is brought as a lamb to the 



A LAMB. 53 

slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so He opened not His mouth." Be Christ 
our pattern. Learn from Him patience under suf- 
fering. The hymn is a favorite one : — 

" My dear Redeemer, and my Lord, 
! read my duty in Thy word ; 
But in Thy life the law appears 
Drawn out in living characters. 

"Such was Thy truth, and such Thy zeal. 
Such deference to Thy Father's will, 
Such love, and meekness so divine, 
I would transcribe, and make them mine." 

So also that other hymn comes to us with great 
sweetness : — 

" Behold where in a mortal form 
Appears each grace divine ! 
The virtues all in Jesus met, 
With mildest radiance shine. 

" Midst keen reproach and cruel scorn, 
He meek and patient stood." 

Both hymns close with the words, " Be Christ our 
pattern." 

2. But Christ was more than a meek Lamb ; He 
was a slain Lamb. He was more than a pattern ; 
He was a sacrifice. By the Jewish law a lamb was 
offered every morning, and another lamb every 
evening, '' day by day, continually." This was a 



54 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

part of the Temple service down to the time of 
Christ. Some have supposed that it was at the 
time of the evening sacrifice that John saw Jesus 
coming to him, and that it was this coincidence 
that led John thus to say, " Behold the Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sin of the world ! " The 
daily Temple offering was a type of the greater 
offering of Christ; it foreshadowed the greater 
sacrifice. So when type and antitype were seen in 
juxtaposition, it was natural that John, understand- 
ing the significance of both, should say, *' Behold 
the Lamb ! " I say, we are to view Christ, then, 
not wholly as a Lamb in character, but as a Lamb 
slain. In the plan of God He was " the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world." He came 
to earth, not to make an exhibition of His life, — 
to display His power and greatness, to astonish, or 
even to bless mankind by His heaHng the sick and 
raising the dead. Nor was it to set an example of 
strict fidelity, obedience, and purity of life. It was 
that being a holy person He might die; that He 
might make a sacrifice that none but He could 
make. The life antedated the death. Without 
that life the death would have been in vain ; with- 
out that death the life would have been in vain. 
We must pattern after the life ; but the death saves 



A LAMB. 55 

US. We err if we suffer our minds to dwell wholly 
on the life of Christ, and not at all upon His death 
and sufferings. The one is looking at the Lamb ; 
the other is looking at the Lamb slain. It matters 
not how innocent the victim is, if it be not offered. 
Character is preparatory to the sacrifice. So then 
let us follow this innocent person through His meek 
and holy life, into the palace of the high-priest, and 
into the judgment hall of Pilate ; but let us not stop 
there to see Him mocked and buffeted, but follow 
Him on to Calvary and the Cross. Oh, the agony 
of that hour ! He hangs on the accursed tree ! 
Hear that cry, ** My God, my God, why hast Thou 
forsaken Me? " He drinks the dregs of bitterness ; 
He drains the last drop of agony, till He cries, *' It 
is finished," and gives up the ghost. There is 
where our hope hinges ; there our destiny was de- 
cided for an endless life. The cross is the pivotal 
point of the world's redemption. In the last scenes 
of Jesus' life the whole significance of His mission 
is seen. His life was grand ; but His death was 
sublime. His life could not save us; His death 
did. We may admire His life, and pattern after 
it; but its lofty purpose did not appear till the 
grand consummation on Calvary. He knew full 
well the object of His mission, and what awaited 



56 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

Him, and tq His blinded disciples uttered strange 
words. He spoke of " the meat that He had to eat," 
" the baptism that He was about to accomplish," 
" the sign of Jonas, and the temple that He would 
build In three days." On the Mount of Transfigu- 
ration Moses and EHas came down to Him and 
talked of the decease that He should accomplish at 
Jerusalem. Thus He had another purpose than to 
set a perfect example, or to scatter the charities of 
His miracle-working power. These were the gifts 
of wealth ; these were the coins that royalty scat- 
ters in Its way. His aim was higher ; It was not to 
alleviate, but to make whole. It Is true He gave 
sight and hearing, and health and strength, to a 
few; but He gave Himself to the world ! 

3. Further, Christ was a paschal Lamb. His 
sacrifice was a vicarious sacrifice. His death was 
a substitutive death. If He had not died, we must 
die. He died In our stead. The Jews not only 
had a lamb slain morning and evening, daily, but 
once a year also at the celebration of the passover. 
There was not only the private family festival, but 
also a pubHc and national sacrifice offered on each 
of the days of unleavened bread. The passover 
commemorated the deliverance of the Jews from 
Egypt, when the destroying angel passed over the 



A LAMB. 57 

houses whose lintels and door-posts were sprinkled 
with the blood of a lamb ; and this was established 
as an ordinance in Israel forever. It is a remark- 
able fact that it was at the time of the Jewish pass- 
over, and the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, that 
Christ, the Lamb of God, was slain upon Calvary. 
We have seen that it was His mission to die. We 
now come wholly under the power of the thought 
that He died for us. We advance from His charac- 
ter and act to the object and end of the act. Why 
did He die? That we might live. He was not 
slain wholly as a martyr. He came to earth with 
the purpose of dying in our stead. Abundant are 
the passages that assert the substitutive character 
of Christ's death. *' Who H^is own self bare our 
sins in His own body on the tree ; " " Because 
Christ also suffered for us ; " *' For even Christ 
our passover is sacrificed for us ; " " Now in the 
end of the world hath He appeared to put away 
sin by the sacrifice of Himself; " '' Christ was once 
offered to bear the sins of many." Thus we stand 
before that cross, and see what our sins have 
done ; what they cost, — the price of our redemp- 
tion ! " Without shedding of blood there is no 
remission ; " and it was the costliest blood that was 
shed. Glorious truth, — Christ is our passover ! 



58 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

" Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation for 
sin, through faith in His blood," — in His blood ; 
not through faith in His example and life. And 
when we come to the Lord's table the exhortation 
is, that in taking the emblems we shall " show the 
Lord's death " — not His life — *' till He come." 
Yes, it was on the head of that bleeding victim 
that our sins were laid. It is in and through 
Christ, just because He died, that we live and have 
hope of heaven to-day. So then we sing : — 

" Not all the blood of beasts 
On Jewish altars slain, 
Could give the guilty conscience peace, 
Or wash away the stain. 

" But Christ the heavenly Lamb 
Takes all our sins away, — 
A sacrifice of nobler name 
And richer blood than they." 

Thus the glory of Christ comes out in the end. 
We may admire Him for His purity and excellence. 
We may be astonished to know that He is to be 
slain ; but when we see that He is slain for us, all 
our heart-strings break ; our souls tumultuate; 
every barrier gives way ; the eyes shed " floods 
of tears ; " the grateful soul wants a thousand 
hearts to give in recognition of that love. Now, 



A LAMB. 



59 



how blessed an ordinance is the Lord's Supper ! 
If the passover commemorated deliverance from 
Egypt, much more may we celebrate escape from 
the thraldom of sin. Saved are we from its guilt 
and power; and all through Him whose broken 
body and bleeding form are seen again in the 
symbols of the communion service ! Have we 
knowledge to discern the Lord's body? Have we 
faith to feed upon Him? Oh! the all-absorbing 
fulness of the thought — the Lamb — the Lamb ! 

" Come, all ye saints of God, 
Wide through the earth abroad 

Spread Jesus' fame. 
Tell what His love has done ; 
Trust in His name alone ; 
Shout to His lofty throne, 
' Worthy the Lamb ! ' 

" Hark how the choirs above, 
Filled with the Saviour's love, 

Dwell on His name ; 
There too may we be found. 
With light and glory crowned, 
While all the heavens resound, 
' Worthy the Lamb ! ' " 



^ J>|)epl)ert)* 



*' Thou ! whom my soul admires above 
All earthly joy and earthly love, — 
Tell me, dear Shepherd ! let me know, - 
Where do Thy sweetest pastures grow ? 

" Where is the shadow of that rock, 
That from the sun defends Thy flock ? 
Fain would I feed among Thy sheep, — 
Among them rest, among them sleep." 



V 



A SHEPHERD. 

** I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known 
of mine." — John x. 14. 

"Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep." — Heb. 
xiii. 20. 

"When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a 
crown of glory." — i Pet. v. 4. 

TESUS called Himself a Shepherd; He never 
called Himself a Lamb. The Church is called 
a fold ; believers are the sheep ; children are the 
lambs. A flock implies a shepherd. The pastoral 
life of the patriarchs seems to have brought this 
figure of the shepherd and his sheep into frequent 
use. One of our sweetest Psalms begins with the 
words, "The Lord is my Shepherd." Prophecy- 
said of Christ, " He shall feed His flock like a shep- 
herd." We could hardly part with this figure, it 
is so inwrought into the fabric of the Scriptures, is 
so fit and significant, and is so dear to those who 
compose the Church. We love to think of our- 



64 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

selves as members of a common flock watched and 

tended by the same great and good Shepherd. 

I. It is to be said, first, of our Shepherd, that He 

feeds us. 

" The Lord my pasture shall prepare, 
And feed me with a shepherd's care." 

The first duty of a shepherd is to feed the flock. 
No other service or attention can take the place of 
this. Jesus' charge to Peter was, " Feed my 
sheep ; " " Feed my lambs." Peter, remembering 
this charge, repeated it to the elders : " Feed the 
flock of God which is among you." And Paul said, 
" Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all 
the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath 
made you overseers, to feed the church of God." 
The ancient shepherds were neglectful, and fed 
themselves ; hence the woe : ** Woe be to the shep- 
herds of Israel that do feed themselves ! should 
not the shepherds feed the flocks ? Ye eat the fat, 
and ye clothe you with the wool ; ye kill them that 
are fed : but ye feed not the flock." On the con- 
trary, the great Shepherd says : '* I will feed my 
flock, and I will cause them to lie down." " I will 
feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high 
mountains of Israel shall their fold be : there shall 
they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall 



A SHEPHERD. 65 

they feed upon the mountains of Israel." Our 
Shepherd has infinite resources; His pastures 
never wither ; the supply is rich, and it never fails. 
It is a natural inference, if the Lord is our Shep- 
herd, we shall not want. He will supply the needs 
of the body. One who had experience said that 
" he had not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his 
seed begging bread." If necessary, the ravens will 
bring bread or the heavens rain manna. But it is 
the soul especially that the great Shepherd feeds. 
In a spiritual sense He manifests Himself; He 
comes in and sups with us ; He sends His Spirit to 
witness with our spirit, and to impart the knowl- 
edge of things spiritually discerned. We speak of 
His entertainments as blessed; we enjoy the deli- 
cious fare ; we feed on angels' food. The various 
means of grace — prayer, song, worship, the sacra- 
ments, personal efforts, and the endurance of trials 
— are methods by which spiritual strength and 
stature are attained. *' Blessed are they which do 
hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they 
shall be filled." Nor is this fulness confined to 
earth. Of the glorified it is written : " They shall 
hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither 
shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the 
Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 



66 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of 
waters." 

2. Christ leads His people. " He that entereth 
in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To 
Him the porter openeth ; and the sheep hear His 
voice: and He calleth His own sheep by name, 
and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth 
His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the 
sheep follow Him." " He maketh me to He down 
in green pastures ; He leadeth me beside the still 
waters." Jesus is thought to have been the Jeho- 
vah-angel in the wilderness. He was the pillar of 
cloud and of fire to ancient Israel. He is the guide 
of His people now. He shows us the way; He 
leads where the pasturage is best; He takes us 
by paths that are safest. The pious soul rejoices 
in this guidance, and cries, " Teach me Thy way, 
O Lord, and lead me in a plain path ; " " For Thy 
name's sake lead me and guide me ; " " Lead me 
in the way of righteousness ; " '' Lead me into 
the land of uprightness." Many of our hymns ex- 
press this sense of dependence on a leader. We 

sing : — 

" Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah." 

" Saviour, like a shepherd lead us ; 
Much we need Thy tender care," 



A SHEPHERD. 6/ 

Oh, tell me, Thou life and delight of my soul, 
Where the flock of Thy pasture are feeding; 

I seek Thy protection, I need Thy control ; 
I would go where my Shepherd is leading." 



" He leadeth me ! Oh, blessed thought. 
Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught ! 
Whate'er I do, where'er I be, 
Still 't is God's hand that leadeth me." 

We have no visible symbols, there is no seen 
hand ; but the guidance is no less real. The way 
is often not what we would expect; but He who 
leads knows all the paths, and which is best. An- 
cient Israel were led in a strange, difficult, and 
roundabout way, and yet we read, '' He led them 
forth by the right way." The Alpine shepherds 
sometimes take a lamb to draw the flock to shelves 
of richer green ; and the good Shepherd has designs 
of mercy when He leads us in ways that are dark^ 
painful, and disappointing. 

3. He reclaims us from our wanderings. Our 
original state was that of lost sheep. " All we like 
sheep have gone astray ; " but the good Shepherd 
sought and recovered us. Still we are prone to 
wander. We seek the fields where we once fed ; 
or we trust to ourselves, and get astray. But as an 
earthly shepherd having an hundred sheep, if he 



68 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

lose one of them, would leave the ninety and nine 
and go after that which is lost till he find it, so our 
loving Shepherd seeks and rescues us, and brings 
us home. His language is, " Behold I, even I, will 
both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a 
shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he 
is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I 
seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of 
all places where they have been scattered in the 
cloudy and dark day." '' I will seek that which 
was lost, and bring again that which was driven 
away." Having had an experience of this loving 
care, we sing : — 

"Jesus my Shepherd is, 

'T was He that loved my soul, 
'T was He that washed me in His blood, 

'T was He that made me whole ; 
'T was He that sought the lost, 

That found the wandering sheep ; 
'T was He that brought me to the fold 

'T is He that still doth keep. 

" No more a wandering sheep, 

I love to be controlled, 
I love my tender Shepherd's voice, 

I love the peaceful fold. 
No more a wayward child, 

I seek no more to roam ; 
I love my heavenly Father's voice, — 

I love, I love His home." 



A SHEPHERD. 69 

4. The good Shepherd protects us from harm. 
The fold is situated in the midst of enemies. " The 
devil, like a roaring lion, walketh about seeking 
whom he may devour." The good Shepherd does 
not aim to take us out of the world, but to keep us 
from the evil. This He does by His divine presence 
and aid. The world is full of sin ; temptations 
beset us; Satan, if permitted, would destroy our 
souls. The Lord said to Simon, " Behold, Satan 
hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as 
wheat : but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith 
fail not." So He prays for all His people, and pre- 
serves them from the wiles of the destroyer. He 
says, " He that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, 
whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf com- 
ing, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth; and the 
wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The 
hireling fleeth because he is an hireling, and careth 
not for the sheep." *' My sheep hear my voice, 
and I know them, and they follow Me : and I give 
unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." 
How gracious is this assurance ! With such a 
Shepherd, we can say, '* The Lord is my light and 
my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the 
strength of my life ; of whom shall I be afraid ? " 



yo SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

5. The good Shepherd cares for the feeble of 
the flock. His love expresses itself most strongly 
toward those most needing His aid. " He shall 
gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in 
His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are 
with young." He came to minister to the weak, 
to lift up the lowly. He made friends among 
those whom the Pharisees despised. It was said 
of Him, " This man receiveth sinners and eateth 
with them." He touched and healed lepers; He 
took little children into His arms and blessed them ; 
He spoke with fallen women and cast the evil spirit 
out of them ; many were His miracles of mercy, 
and in many ways He made hearts glad. He is 
still the same gracious Shepherd. The cry of the 
wounded sheep arrests His attention ; the bleating 
of the lamb excites His compassion. Before He 
left the world, He spoke of the '' other sheep ; " 
and in His prayer for His disciples, said, " Neither 
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall 
believe on Me through their word." It was His prom- 
ise also, " I will not leave you comfortless ; I will 
come to you." We are sure, therefore, of His spirit- 
ual presence to help us in our weakness and need. 

6. We reach the climax when we say, '* The 
good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." It 



A SHEPHERD. 



71 



is characteristic of a faithful shepherd that he suf- 
fers hardships, and risks his Hfe for the sheep. 
Jacob said to Laban, " Thus I was ; in the day the 
drought consumed me, and the frost by night; 
and my sleep departed from mine eyes." David, 
when a lion and a bear took a lamb out of the 
flock, followed after them and slew them, and de- 
livered the lamb out of their mouth. Paul was a 
faithful under-shepherd, and he writes : *' Being 
affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to 
have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God 
only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear 
unto us." But Christ loves us with a divine love, 
and He has actually died in our behalf There is 
immense significance in those words, — "I am the 
good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth His 
life for the sheep." In olden times the sheep were 
slain in sacrifice ; but now the Shepherd takes their 
place. David, when he sinned, and the people 
were suffering for his sake, said, *' Lo, I have 
sinned, and I have done wickedly : but these 
sheep, what have they done ? Let Thy hand, I pray 
Thee, be against me, and against my father's 
house." Not so with the good Shepherd ; He is 
the innocent victim. We deserve punishment, but 
He suffers in our stead. Observe, too, how freely 



72 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

He offered Himself: '' I lay down my life ; " "I 
lay it down of myself." See the glory of our Re- 
deemer ! What love was this ! Wonderful words ! 
" When we were yet without strength, in due time 
Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a 
righteous man will one die ; yet peradventure for 
a good man some would even dare to die. But 
God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while 
we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." 



3^ Eocfe. 



" We fly to our eternal Rock, 

And find a sure defence ; 
His holy name our lips invoke, 
And draw salvation thence." 



VI. 

A ROCK. 

"And that rock was Christ."— i Cor. x. 4. 

T3ALESTINE was a mountainous country, and 
had many rocks, which served as natural 
defences. It is not strange that the term rock 
should have been used frequently by the sacred 
writers. David and Isaiah have much to say of 
God under the image of a rock. 

Most appropriate is this figure in its application 
to Christ. 

I. He is the Rock on which the Church is built. 
Long before His advent prophecy announced : 
" Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, 
a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foun- 
dation." " The stone which the builders refused 
is become the head-stone of the corner." This 
language Jesus quoted as referring to Himself, ask- 
ing the Jews if they had never read it. Peter and 
Paul make a Hke reference to it. Believers are 
spoken of as " built upon the foundation of the 



76 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being 
the chief corner-stone." We may think of the 
Church, then, as a spiritual temple. Believers are 
the living stones in it, and Christ is the sure foun- 
dation. It is a temple sightly and grand ; strength 
and beauty are in it; age cannot impair it; devils 
cannot do it harm. '' On this rock," said Christ, 
"will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it." 

" Glorious things of thee are spoken, 
Zion, city of our God ! 
He whose word cannot be broken, 
Formed thee for His own abode. 

" On the rock of ages founded, 

What can shake thy sure repose ? 
With salvation's walls surrounded. 
Thou mayst smile at all thy foes." 

" Behold the sure foundation stone, 
Which God in Zion lays, 
To build our heavenly hopes upon. 
And His eternal praise. 

*' The foolish builders, scribe and priest. 
Reject it with disdain ; 
Yet on this rock the church shall rest. 
And envy rage in vain." 

2. Christ is the Rock of personal faith. Every 
man is a builder, and it is infinitely important on 
what and in what way he builds. The two classes 



A ROCK. 77 

of builders are described in the parable. The wise 
builds upon the rock, and his house stands. The 
foolish builds upon the sand, and his house falls. 
Elsewhere we read : *' For other foundation can no 
man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 
" Neither is there salvation in any other : for there 
is none other name under heaven given among 
men, whereby we must be saved." Newman Hall 
tells the story of a London merchant who was 
greatly distressed on account of his sins, and who 
was trying various methods to obtain peace of 
mind. One day in walking he came to a bridge, 
where a blind man was reading from a raised copy 
of the Bible. He caught the words, '' none other 
name," and these became so riveted in his mind 
that he was driven by them to the only source of 
peace and pardon. " Oh," said he, " I have found 
it. I have been making a mistake. I have been 
thinking I should be saved and find comfort and 
peace by prayer and strivings and efforts ; but it 
is only Jesus who can save." Many are the men 
who are building on the sand. Some are self- 
righteous, some rest on forms, some rely on prom- 
ises, some deny that there is any need of a Saviour ; 
but all will find, sooner or later, that there is but 
one only sure and safe foundation. 



78 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

" Oh, if my house is built upon a rock, 
I know it will stand forever. 
The floods may come, and the rolling thunder's shock 
May beat upon my house that is founded on a rock, 
But it never will fall, never will fall, 

Never, never, never. 
My rock is firm ; it is my sure foundation, 
'T is Jesus Christ, my loving Saviour, 
Jesus Christ, my loving Saviour, 
The rock of my salvation. 

" But if my house is built upon the sand, 
'T will fall when the floods are swelling : 
The winds will blow, and the tempest will descend. 
And beat upon my house that is built upon the sand. 
And it surely will fall, never to rise. 
Never, never, never." 

3. Christ is a Rock of refuge. We think now of 
shadow and shelter. There are discomforts, and 
Christ refreshes us ; there are dangers, and Christ 
protects us. Prophecy said of Him : "A man shall 
be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from 
the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place, as 
the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." David 
prayed, " Lead me to the rock that is higher than I." 
Our way is through the desert : the sun smites us ; 
our feet sink in the sand. Or we are overtaken by 
a tempest, and are smothered by the dust or are 
drenched by the rain. Or it is enemies who seek 
our life, and we want a hiding-place from their rage. 



A ROCK. 79 

All these needs are met in Christ. The ordinary 
troubles and trials are the discouragements ; the 
strong passions and bitter tears are the tempest; 
and the Evil One is our deadly foe. What the cool- 
ing shade was to the pilgrim, or the projecting 
rock was to the one overtaken by storm, or the 
fastness of the mountain was to David when he 
fled from his foes, that is Christ to all who fly to 
Him for refuge. He is truly " a tabernacle for a 
shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a 
place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and 
from rain." Other resorts are a *' refuge of lies ; " 
he who hides in them will be confounded. 

" When, overwhelmed with grief, 
My heart within me dies ; 
Helpless, and far from all relief, 
To Heaven I lift mine eyes. 

" Oh, lead me to the Rock 

That 's high above my head, 
And make the covert of Thy wings 
My shelter and my shade. 

" Within Thy presence, Lord, 
Forever I '11 abide ; 
Thou art the tower of my defence, 
The refuge where I hide." 

4. Christ is a smitten Rock. The Jews murmured 
in the wilderness, and Moses was commanded to 



80 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

smite the rock. Henceforth there was an abundant 
supply of water. Through all their wanderings 
the stream followed them. The Apostle says, 
" They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed 
them: and that Rock was Christ." That is, the 
rock with its unfailing stream is a representation 
of Christ, who is an ever-present source of life and 
joy to His people. There is no blessing, temporal 
or spiritual, that we do not derive from Christ. As 
the stream which followed the Jews in the wilder- 
ness, when traced to its source brought them to 
the rock in Horeb, so there is no gift of life, health, 
and happiness that, if traced, does not bring us to 
Christ and His cross. The cross speaks of smiting. 
That riven side is our Meribah. There is where 
the grace of God pours itself out upon a lost 
world. 

" Let waters from the smitten Rock 
Refresh each member of Thy flock ; 
And let the streams which from Him flow 
Attend us all the desert through." 

5. Christ is a Rock of offence. He is a rock of 
refuge to those who flee to Him ; but He is a stone 
of stumbling to those who reject Him. Hence it 
is written, " He shall be for a sanctuary ; but for 
a stone of stumbHng and for a rock of offence to 



A ROCK. 8 1 

both the houses of Israel." " Unto you therefore 
which beHeve He is precious: but unto them 
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders 
disallowed, the same is made the head of the cor- 
ner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, 
even to them which stumble at the word, being dis- 
obedient." Thus we see that behef and obedience 
are the conditions on which Christ will be for a 
sanctuary: but that if these are wanting. He will 
be to the rejecters of His grace not a sanctuary, 
but a stone of stumbHng and a rock of offence. 
Jesus Himself says, *' Whosoever shall fall on this 
stone shall be broken : but on whomsoever it shall 
fall it will grind him to powder." 

6. Christ is the Rock of Ages. His nature de- 
mands that we should liken Him to something that 
is lasting ; and so we think of Him as an eternal 
rock. Things about us change, monuments crum- 
ble, faces pass away. The most enduring thing 
is the rock of the mountain. Its base may be 
lashed by the sea, its sides may be torn by the 
tempest, snows and clouds may mantle its summit ; 
but it defies the elements and lives for all time. 
Here, then, is something to which we may liken the 
eternal and unchanging One, the Maker of all 
things, and of whom it is written, " Jesus Christ, 



82 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Yet 
the comparison fails ; for the time is coming when 
the rocks shall flow down like wax, and the islands 
and mountains be moved out of their place. But 
whatever changes the physical earth may undergo, 
and to whatever end it may come, it is true of our 
Christ that He lives, and will live, beyond all the 
cycles of time. He is the Christ of the ages ; and 
whatever of love, forgiveness, and mercy one gen- 
eration has received or may receive, shall diminish 
nought to the men of any succeeding time. Oh, 
glorious Christ, what solid joy there is in thinking 
of Thee as the Rock of Ages ! 



2ri)e Etbin^f Breab. 



■ Bread of heaven ! on Thee we feed, 
For Thy flesh is meat indeed: 
Ever let our souls be fed 
With this true and living bread." 



VII. 
THE LIVING BREAD. 

" And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life." — John 
vi- 35- 

"XT 7ITH five loaves and two small fishes Jesus 
had fed the five thousand in the wilderness. 
The occasion was a remarkable one, and Jesus im- 
proved it by uttering great spiritual truths. Refer- 
ring to the manna in the desert and the bread on 
which He had fed them as only adapted to the 
wants of the body, He said, " My Father giveth you 
the true bread from heaven." " Your fathers did 
eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This 
is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that 
a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the liv- 
ing bread which came down from heaven : if a man 
eat of this bread he shall live forever: and the 
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give 
for the life of the world." 



86 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST, 

Jesus applied this figure to Himself. What fitness 
do we find in it? 

I. Christ satisfies the desire of the soul. Bread 
is man's natural aliment ; he hungers for it, and it 
meets his want. Food that is adapted to other 
orders of beings might not sustain life in him. 
Some things cannot be eaten, and some things if 
eaten would injure and destroy. It is common 
also, among ourselves, to speak of certain articles 
as agreeing with one person that do not agree 
with another. Now what wholesome food is to the 
body, that is Christ to the soul. The soul has its 
cravings, just as the body has. To meet these 
cravings men often mistake ; they try to feed the 
soul on things not adapted to it. It is like substi- 
tuting for bread, a stone ; for fish, a serpent ; and 
for an ^gg, a scorpion. One seeks to satisfy his 
immortal longings by the cultivation of his mind, 
another in the pursuits of ambition or in toiling for 
wealth. The more gross give themselves up to ani- 
mal indulgences ; but still the truth remains, " Man 
has a soul of vast desires," and these desires can 
be met only in Him who calls Himself the Bread 
of Life. To turn from Him is to " feed on ashes," 
to accept the " husks " of the prodigal, to make 
Solomon's choice, and cry in the end, "Vanity! " 



THE LIVING BREAD. 8/ 

2. Bread suggests severity of treatment. " Bread- 
corn is bruised." The ancient method of threshing 
was usually by oxen. Hence the law, '' Thou shalt 
not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn." 
Sometimes threshing was done with flails, and 
sometimes by a sharp instrument that rolled over 
and cut the straw. The seed separated from the 
straw must be winnowed ; next, it must be crushed 
between the upper and lower millstone ; then 
comes the process of kneading, and finally subjec- 
tion to the action of fire. So it is with the Living 
Bread. The provision of grace involved suffering 
and death. We read : '' It became Him for whom 
are all things, and by whom are all things, in 
bringing many sons unto glory to make the Cap- 
tain of their salvation perfect through sufferings ; " 
*' Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedi- 
ence by the things which He suffered ; " " He was 
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for 
our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was 
upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." 

3. Christ gives life to the soul. He is more than 
bread ; He is the " living bread," the '' bread of 
life," {a) He has made life possible. He said of 
Himself, " The bread of God is He which cometh 
down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." 



88 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

The gospel is redemptive: men are dead in tres- 
passes and sins; this scheme furnishes a way of 
recovery. But for Christ, all would perish; now 
life is offered, as loaves are sent to a famishing 
city, ip) We live by feeding on Christ. A man 
might starve with food all around him ; he must 
eat of that food. Hence, says Christ, ** Except ye 
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His 
blood, ye have no Hfe in you." There must be a 
personal appropriation of Christ; the sinner must 
accept the offers of grace, or he will die as cer- 
tainly as if there were no Saviour, {c) We keep 
alive by feeding on Christ. As the body needs con- 
tinual supplies of food, so the soul needs renewed 
supplies of grace. It is the daily bread that nour- 
ishes us. We not only become alive, but we re- 
main alive, by feeding on Christ. " He that eateth 
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in Me, 
and I in him." Our present strength, activity, and 
usefulness depend upon the heartiness and con- 
stancy with which we feed on the Living Bread. 
{d) Through Christ we obtain eternal life. *' He 
that eateth of this bread shall live forever." All 
that is implied in endless life becomes ours through 
Christ. We escape the second death; we live in 
the resurrection; we rise to a divine fellowship 



THE LIVING BREAD. 89 

and enjoy an eternity of bliss, all because we have 
eaten of the Living Bread. So we lay emphasis 
on the words '* life " and *' living." This bread has 
an inherent power in it that makes it ever fresh, 
and that causes those who feed upon it to live, and 
live forever. Temporal food can support life but 
for a season. " Your fathers did eat manna, and 
are dead." Temporal food is perishable. It soon 
corrupts, and loses its nutritious power. The 
manna, however much might be gathered, kept 
but for a night. Temporal food, however whole- 
some, can never restore the dead to life. Tempo- 
ral food springs from the ground. This is the 
** bread which came down from heaven." Oh, 
wondrous grace, that should have provided and 
sent to starving humanity this timely relief! 

We see the fitness of bread as a symbol in the 
Lord's Supper. Jesus took the bread and brake 
it, and said, " This is my body, which is broken for 
you." It seems strange that any should mistake 
His language and understand Him as speaking lit- 
erally instead of figuratively. All that He could 
mean is, " This represents my body." So also He 
said, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, 
and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." 



90 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

That is, ** Except ye avail yourselves of the re- 
demption purchased by my broken body and shed 
blood ye cannot be saved." Nothing can be more 
absurd than to suppose that when Christ gave the 
bread and wine to His disciples they actually ate 
His flesh and drank His blood. There He was 
before them, — a living man, with the same form 
that was shortly afterward nailed to the cross, 
that was deposited in the tomb, and that rose 
again and ascended to heaven. And if the em- 
blems of which Christ spake were the actual 
" body, blood, and divinity " of our Lord, it follows 
that He is possessed of as many bodies as there 
are times when the Lord's Supper is celebrated. 
The evidence of the senses, too, opposes this view. 
Absurd as the doctrine of transubstantiation is, 
Luther could not wholly escape from accepting 
it; the Council of Trent decreed it; and it is a 
cherished article of belief in the Romish Church 
to-day. Protestants regard the Lord's Supper as 
something more than a memorial service. It is a 
sacrament, a holy ordinance instituted by Christ 
We come to it with knowledge to discern the 
Lord's body, and with faith to feed upon Him ; but 
we see in the elements, not literal flesh and blood, 
but the pictured forms of spiritual truth. 



THE LIVING BREAD. 9 1 

Again, how precious should Christ be to us ! 
What value has the meanest crust to a man that 
is starving ! But here is sumptuous fare for men 
whose souls' condition was one of perishing need. 
Can we ever forget who it is that has furnished this 
repast; who by His constraining grace has brought 
us into such delightful relations to Himself, and has 
imparted to us the gift of eternal life? The angels 
wonder and adore. Much more may we, to whom 
this grace is shown. And when we come to the 
Lord's table, penitent, hopeful, thankful, joyful, can 
we suppress the utterance ? — 

" Why was I made to hear Thy voice, 
And enter while there 's room, 
When thousands make a wretched choice, 
And rather starve than come .'' 

" 'T was the same love that spread the feast, 
That sweetly drew us in ; 
Else we had still refused to taste, 
And perished in our sin." 

" Bread of the world, in mercy broken, 
Wine of the soul, in mercy shed ; 
By whom the words of life were spoken, 
And in whose death our sins are dead, — 

" Look on the heart by sorrow broken. 
Look on the tears by sinners shed ; 
And be Thy feast to us the token 
That by Thy grace our souls are fed." 



92 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

Alas \ that any should famish when there is bread 
enough and to spare ! The call to every one is, 
" Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for 
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, 
which the Son of Man shall give unto you." The 
table is spread, and the invitation has gone out, 
"■ Come, for all things are now ready." Would 
that dying men might have such a sense of their 
need, and such appreciation of the grace of Christ, 
as that they shall cry, " Lord, evermore give us this 
bread." 



^rije frue Cfinc^ 



•Vine of Heaven ! Thy blood supplies 
This blest cup of sacrifice ; 
Lord ! Thy wounds our healing give, 
To Thy cross we look and live." 



VIII. 

THE TRUE VINE. 

" I am the true vine." — John xv. i. 

\T JHAT suggested this figure to the Saviour 
• ^ does not appear. The Jewish Church was 
often spoken of as a vine. Perhaps He thought 
of it as having become a " degenerate plant/' and 
so was led to speak of Himself as the true vine. 
Palestine was a land of vineyards, and it would be 
very natural that this figure should be inwoven with 
the speech of the people. Some have thought that 
Jesus was now in the room where He instituted the 
Lord's Supper, and that the wine which He had 
consecrated led Him to speak of Himself as the true 
vine. Others have supposed that He was now on 
His way from the paschal supper to the Mount of 
Olives, and that it was the sight of vines along the 
road that suggested this figure. Others still have 
thought that He was now discoursing in the Tem- 
ple, the entrance to which was adorned with a 



96 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

golden vine, and that, in contrast with this. He was 
led to say, " I am the true vine." 

Whatever may have suggested this figure, we 
can see its appropriateness in many particulars. 

I. The bleeding stem and crushed clusters speak 
to us of suffering. Jesus shed His blood for us, and 
in the fruit of the vine He found a fit symbol. Tak- 
ing the cup. He said, " This cup is the new testa- 
ment in my blood, which is shed for you." The 
figure of blood runs through the Old Testament 
and the New. '* Almost all things are by the law 
purged with blood ; and without shedding of blood 
is no remission." Jesus was trodden in the wine- 
press ; He felt the weight of human guilt and woe. 

2. The vine is suggestive of plenty. It is rightly 
employed to prefigure the joyful flourishing of 
Christ's kingdom. Visit a wine-producing country 
in the season of the vintage. What exuberance of 
growth ! What abundance of fruit ! How the vats 
overflow ! What drenching of the soil ! What fra- 
grance in the air ! So, in anticipation of the bless- 
ings of the gospel, it is written, " The days come, 
that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and 
the treader of grapes him that soweth seed ; and 
the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the 
hills shall melt." 



THE TRUE VINE. 



97 



3. The vine typifies the march of Christ as a 
mighty conqueror, stained with the blood of His 
enemies. Thus we read : " Who is this that 
Cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from 
Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travel- 
ling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak 
in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art 
thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like 
him that treadeth in the wine-fat? I have trodden 
the wine-press alone ; and of the people there was 
none with me : for I will tread them in mine anger, 
and trample them in my fury, and their blood 
shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I wiU 
stain all my raiment." The punishment of the 
wicked is thus described : " The angel thrust in his 
sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the 
earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the 
wrath of God. And the wine-press was trodden 
without the city, and blood came out of the wine- 
press even unto the horse-bridles." 

4. The vine is suggestive of shadow and repose. 
What a grateful arbor, with its canopy of green 
tendrils and spreading leaves, is to a tired traveller, 
that is Christ to a fainting soul. In Him we find 
more lasting comfort than Jonah had under his 
booth, and higher prosperity than Judah and Israel 

7 



98 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

enjoyed in the days of Solomon, when they *' dwelt 
safely every man under his vine and under his fig- 
tree." Their security was physical ; ours is spirit- 
ual : their rest was that of the body ; ours is that 
of the soul. In the Song of Solomon, the Church 
is represented as saying of Christ, " I sat down 
under His shadow with great delight." 

5. The vine speaks to us of rich fruitage. We 
think of the Eshcol cluster. It tells us of the 
character of that country. The testimony was, 
" It is a land that floweth with milk and honey ; 
and this is the fruit of it." So favorably affected 
was Caleb, that he said, " Let us go up at once 
and possess it." The cluster that was a burden 
for two is a token of the excellency, richness, and 
fulness of Christ in Himself, and of the blessed- 
ness of the inheritance that He bestows upon His 
people. 

6. The vine suggests the humility of Christ. He 
does not call Himself the oak or cedar, to which 
the great of earth are sometimes likened. He says, 
*' I am the vine." It is not now that which is 
stately and sturdy that shall best describe Him : it 
is the clinging, dependent, tender vine. 

7. We are reminded by the vine of the low esti- 
mate that the wicked put upon Christ. It is a 



THE TRUE VINE. 99 

plant that fills but little space, and is gnarled, 
crooked, and unattractive. It was predicted of 
Christ, '' He shall grow up before Him as a tender 
plant, and as a root out of a dry ground : He hath 
no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see 
Him, there is no beauty that we should desire 
Him." 

8. The vine indicates the relation that Christ 
sustains to His people. He says, " I am the vine, 
ye are the branches." Perhaps the chief signifi- 
cance of the figure lies just here. Separation from 
Christ implies fruitlessness and death. '' Abide in 
Me," He says, " and I in you. As the branch can- 
not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; 
no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the 
vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth in Me, 
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: 
for without Me ye can do nothing." The believer 
is ingrafted into Christ; the union is a vital one; 
it is the same life in stem and branches. Joining 
the Church, making a profession, may be tying to 
Christ, but it is not of itself union with Him. 

9. We see in the vine the connection between 
the fruit and foliage and the hidden life of the 
stalk. The stalk is but little seen ; its life is seen 
in the purple clusters and the green leaves under 



ICX) SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

which it is embowered. So Christ is the hidden 
life of the Church. We cannot see Him, but the 
growth, fruitfulness, and prosperity of a church 
evidence that He is in it. You cannot uncover the 
ordinances without discovering that centrahzing, 
vitaHzing power. You cannot lay open a Christian 
heart without finding Christ there. " Our life is 
hid with Christ in God." It matters not if the vine 
be not seen. It delights not in bare stalks. Its 
best evidence that it is alive and is fulfilling its 
office is in the luxuriant foliage and pendent fruit 
with which it is all covered over. It is not in the 
framework of a church that Christ delights, but in 
that church garlanded and hidden under living 
leaves, fruits, and flowers. It is not the name or 
creed of a church that makes it beautiful and in- 
fluential, but the life it possesses and the evidence 
it furnishes of the hidden presence of Christ in it. 

10. The vine illustrates the unity of believers 
among themselves. " I in them and Thou in Me," 
said Christ, " that they may be made perfect in 
one." The branches are parts of a whole, all con- 
tributing to the common symmetry and beauty. 
Close at hand, one part may seem unimportant 
and unsightly; but remove it, and you feel Its loss. 
The branches, too, are affected alike by the same 



THE TRUE VINE. 1 01 

influences. In drought they languish, and in the 
season of rain they revive. It is the same vital 
fluid also that courses through all the branches, 
carrying life and fruitfulness to the remotest twig. 
Nor does it matter how the branches stand in 
respect to one another : they may be on opposite 
sides of the trunk, or widely distant; still they 
belong to the common unity, so long as they have 
the same origin and start from the same root. 

11. The vine speaks of cheer. In the parable of 
the trees, the vine is represented as saying, " Should 
I leave my wine which cheereth God and man, and 
go to be promoted over the trees ? " The efl"ect of 
wine upon the body serves to illustrate the effect 
of grace upon the heart. There is no evil like that 
of sin, and no wretchedness like that which it pro- 
duces. But he who drinks the gospel wine finds 
his soul eased of its burdens, relieved of its sorrows, 
and quieted of its fears. 

12. The vine suggests pruning. This seems to 
have been the first thought with Jesus in using this 
figure. *' I am the true vine, and my Father is 
the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth 
not fruit. He taketh away : and every branch that 
beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth 
more fruit." It is a severe process, but it is the 



102 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

VIne-dresser's method and the evidence of His 
loving care. The withered leaves must be removed, 
the rank growth cut away, for so we reach our 
highest thrift and largest fruitfulness. 

13. The true vine speaks of that which is genu- 
ine and best. There was a species of wild vine 
that is often referred to in the Old Testament. 
" Their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the fields 
of Gomorrah ; their grapes are the grapes of gall, 
their clusters are bitter : their wine is the poison 
of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps." " I 
found Israel like grapes in the wilderness." *' Yet 
I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right 
seed : how then art thou turned into the degener- 
ate plant of a strange vine unto Me?" Christ is 
the true vine, chosen, planted, cultivated ; the vine 
of the vineyard, whose fruit is fragrant, luscious, 
perfect. 

14. The vine is a symbol of growth and exten- 
sion. It is a spreading plant. It sends out its 
tendrils, and these falling into the ground take 
root, and grow again. So is it with the true vine. 
It is full of vigor, and is expansive in its nature. 
We have divine authority for saying that it will 
continue to extend itself till it roots out every 
degenerate plant, and embowers the earth with its 



THE TRUE VINE. IO3 

luxuriant foliage and precious fruits. We read, 
" Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : Thou 
hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou 
preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to 
take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills 
were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs 
thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out 
her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto 
the river." " He shall cause them that come of 
Jacob to take root : Israel shall blossom and bud, 
and fill the face of the world with fruit." We know 
the object of Christ's mission, and we cannot doubt 
that His church is to grow, and His kingdom ex- 
tend, till every island is reached, and every region 
penetrated where sinful men are found. Prophecy 
shall give place to fulfilment, prediction to fact, 
prayer be answered, and all the ends of the earth 
see the salvation of our God. 



( 



3rf)e ?Door^ 



" The door of Thy mercy stands open all day 
To the poor and the needy who knock by the way ; 
No sinner shall ever a place be denied, 
Who comes seeking mercy through Jesus that died." 



IX. 

THE DOOR. 

" I am the door." — John x. 9. 

TN those four monosyllables we have an epitome 
of the gospel. A door is a place of egress and 
of ingress. It implies two apartments or condi- 
tions, — a passage out, and a passage in. If one is 
in, and fire occurs, he must get out : if one is out, 
and storm arises, he must get in. Many years ago, 
in a Southern city, a theatre filled with people took 
fire. A rush was made for the doors ; but these 
opened inward, and the pressure was so great that 
the doors were held fast, and many people perished 
in the flames. Law-makers have found it necessary 
to require that the doors of public halls shall open 
outward. Now we see a poor boy standing on 
the street before an elegant city mansion. It is 
a winter night, and the storm beats pitilessly. 
Within, the lights are burning, and the coals glow 
in the grate. Pleasant sounds reach the ear, and 
all things indicate that it is a home of gladness. 



I08 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

Presently the door opens ; the child is discovered, 
and kindly taken within. Egress, ingress ; escape, 
admission. That is Christ. 

I. Christ is the door from despair to hope. We 
think of the lost condition of man. The gates of 
Paradise had closed upon him. He had incurred 
the divine displeasure; sentence of death had been 
pronounced upon him ; and he was held in prison 
awaiting the execution of the law. But mercy in- 
tercedes with justice, and relief comes. It is not 
that violence is done to any principle of right or 
attribute of Deity. It is the wonderful gospel 
scheme, which presents Christ to a doomed world 
as a door of mercy. Man's situation was like that 
of one hemmed in by bars of iron and walls of 
adamant. Grace makes a rent in those walls and 
man is released. Yet this is done in accordance 
with justice, government, and law. The walls that 
confine us are not battered down, as if prisons 
should not exist and we were not at fault ; but by 
peaceful provision the door is constructed, and we 
who had offended are pardoned, liberated, and 
introduced into a condition of hope and joy. It 
is a door whose repeated swinging seems to say, 
" Mercy and truth are met together : righteousness 
and peace have kissed each other." 



THE DOOR. 109 

2. We may speak of Christ as the door from sin 
to holiness. But for Him, this world would have 
remained not only a prison, but a prison full of all 
uncleanness. Sin is corrupting, and but for the 
counteracting influences of grace, it would make 
our world a moral charnel-house. The gospel is 
antiseptic, and whatever of sweetness and life pre- 
vails here, is due to it. Paradise was lost, but 
Paradise is to be regained. Our first parents were 
driven out of Eden, but they carried with them a 
precious promise, which assures us of the ultimate 
triumph of purity and truth throughout the earth. 
On a broad scale, the moral renovation of the 
world is due to Christ. He is the door from its 
lapsed to its perfected condition. 

3. Christ is the door to changes in the heart. 
The unbeliever and Christ dwell apart. But when 
the soul is united to Christ its feelings and pur- 
poses are changed. It turns from self, from evil, 
from the objects that before pleased it, and en- 
gages in new activities and interests, and finds new 
joys. So radical is the change, that we read, " If 
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old 
things are passed away ; behold all things are be- 
come new." From all that the believer was, with 
his sins and fears and unrest, to what the believer 



no SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

is, with his high aims, hopes, and joys, Christ is 
the door. 

4. Christ is the door from earth to heaven. 
Through Him we mount where angels stand ; 
through Him we come where expectation culmi- 
nates in perfect joy. You ask, Who are these in 
bright array? And the answer is given: "These 
are they which came out of great tribulation, and 
have washed their robes and made them white in 
the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before 
the throne of God, and serve Him day and night 
in His temple." Heaven is the place of white 
robes, of harps and crowns and palms of victory. 
There the concert is held of angelic and ransomed 
spirits ; there the chorus ever ascends, " Unto Him 
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His 
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and 
dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 

5. Christ is a door only to those who avail them- 
selves of His mercy. In some sense He is an 
open door. The gates of gospel grace are said to 
stand open night and day. Prophecy said to the 
Church, " Thy gates shall be open continually." 
But though Christ be an open door, it is not meant 
that He is a door rent from its hinges, or that is 



THE DOOR. Ill 

ne\er closed, or a mere opening through which 
all pass irrespective of character. Men advertise 
** doors open " at such an hour; but that does not 
mean admission free. The gospel door is two- 
panelled ; or we may say that faith and repentance 
are the admission ticket, or they are the key that 
turns the lock. The hypocrite brings a spurious 
ticket, and is rejected: the Pharisee claims to have 
a key of his own ; but it does not fit the lock, and 
he cannot enter. There is no price; the tickets 
are given away, but they are essential. The key is 
in the hands of the Spirit; He offers it; it must 
be used, and no other will answer. Without it, one 
is like the man who has lost his key, or forgotten 
the combination to his safe-lock. " These things 
saith He that hath the key of David, He that 
openeth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, and 
no man openeth." Nor is there any other door. 
Jesus says, " I am the door : by Me if any man 
enter in, he shall be saved." " He that entereth 
not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth 
up some other way, the same is a thief and a 
robber." It seems strange, therefore, that any 
should think that they can be saved without faith 
and repentance. Arching the door of grace the 
inscription appears, " There shall in no wise enter 



112 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST, 

into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever 
worketh abomination or maketh a He." '' Blessed 
are they that do His commandments, that they 
may have a right to the tree of Hfe, and may enter 
in through the gates into the city." 

6. Christ is a door for all alike. There are no 
private entrances ; all must come through the one 
door. There is not a door for the rich and another 
for the poor; one for the master and another for 
the slave ; one for the monarch and another for the 
subject. Men may shine in courts, or sweat on 
the field of toil ; but in the sight of God, in con- 
dition they are sinful and helpless alike. Some 
seem to want a door made for themselves, and 
reserved seats when they enter. But " God is no 
respecter of persons." *' God resisteth the proud, 
but giveth grace unto the humble." 

" Strait is the way, — the door is strait, 

That leads to joys on high : 
'T is but a few that find the gate, 
While crowds mistake and die." 

7. The door suggests duty. Sound the cry of 
danger, and men rush out of the door. Promise 
a musical or literary treat, and the eager comers 
hasten and press in at the door. Why are not men 
more eager to escape from the evil of sin, and to 



THE DOOR. 113 

enjoy the delights of holiness? The prison door 
is opened; why do they not come out? Gratitude 
should kindle the inert senses. The lost sheep 
owes it to the good Shepherd to follow Him to the 
fold. Further, men are commanded to come out. 
Obligation, interest, advantage, urge ; and then the 
Deliverer Himself insists that men shall turn from 
sin and accept salvation. At the same time grace 
is forced upon no one. If it provides the door, it 
does not necessitate deliverance or compel admis- 
sion. Each with his own powers must act for 
himself. If Jesus with one breath said, *' I am 
the door," with another He said, '' Strive to enter 
in at the strait gate." " Ask and it shall be given 
you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall 
be opened unto you." This is the day of grace, 
but we are reminded that the time is coming 
when the door will be shut. The parable of the 
wise and foolish virgins represents the two classes 
of the human family. Happy they, who when 
the Bridegroom cometh, shall be ready to enter 
with Him in to the marriage. But alas for those 
who, neglecting present opportunities, come too 
late to mercy's door, crying, " Lord, Lord, open 
to us," and a voice from within shall answer, 
"Verily, I know you not"! 



114 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

8. The Christian cannot think of the open door 
without a feeHng of rapture. The Jews returned 
from captivity with songs of joy. The appearance 
of Peter turned a prayer-meeting into a grand 
praise service. The ransomed on high Hft an 
ecstatic song that is as the voice of many,waters. 
We begin our melodies here, and key our hearts 
to the raptures of heaven. We sing our song 
of degrees on the way to the celestial city, and 
by and by we shall enter through the gates of 
pearl, and take our place amidst that holy, happy 
company. 



irije Wai?, 



'' Thou art the Way : to Thee alone 
From sin and death we flee ; 
And he who would the Father seek, 
Must seek Him, Lord, by Thee." 



X. 

THE WAY. 

" I am the way." — John xiv. 6. 

'T^HERE are a great many ways in this world, 
-■- — right ways and wrong ways, good ways 
and bad ways, transgressor's ways and wisdom's 
ways. Jesus says, " I am the y^diy,'' as if there were 
no other way ; and with respect to holiness, hap- 
piness, and heaven, that is so. Men want to go 
to heaven. Jesus had been talking about heaven. 
He is soon to go back there, and this is His fare- 
well address. He speaks of His Father's house 
and the many mansions, and the way to go there. 
Thomas interrogates, " Lord, we know not whither 
thou goest; and how can we know the way?" 
Jesus saith unto him, " I am the way, the truth 
and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but 
by Me." What a difference it makes whether one 
is in the right way or the wrong way ! What vexa- 



Il8 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

tion and annoyance, and sometimes suffering and 
loss, from getting into the wrong way ! Man is a 
pilgrim in this world, away from home, away from 
his Father's house, and he must try to come there. 
He is like a lost child, but a kind gentleman 
appears, who says, "• Fear not, my child ; I know 
your father; I know where you live; I will take 
you home." There is the more danger, because 
there are false guides, who speak kindly, but their 
aim is to mislead and destroy. To man lost, 
bewildered, sorrowing, Jesus, the true guide, ap- 
pears and says, " I am the way." It is important 
that we trust and believe Him and give Him our 
hand. Were there several ways, we might choose 
between them ; but with reference to human needs 
and redemption Christ is the only way. Yet what 
multitudes fail of finding the true and living way ! 

" Broad is the road that leads to death, 
And thousands walk together there ; 
But wisdom shows a narrow path, 
With here and there a traveller." 

I. Some are walking in the way of unbelief. 
That will never get a man to heaven. If it brings 
him quite near, it will keep him out at last. Did it 
not serve the Israelites so? "We see they could 
not enter in because of unbeHef " There are those 



THE WAY. 119 

who have but little faith in anything. They deny 
that there is a God ; or, if He exists, that He takes 
cognizance of man ; or that the Bible is His holy 
and revealed will; or that Christ is our atoning 
Saviour; or that our life is immortal; or that there 
is any recompense for sin. They have lost faith in 
man also, and in all goodness ; and so they adhere 
to a system of negations; they disbelieve much 
and believe little; they distrust and deny; there 
is nothing that they really rest upon and believe. 
They can tear down, but they cannot build up. 
They can see difficulties in the Christian system, 
but they cannot furnish a scheme that is better. 
Now the grand inquiry of every one is, '' Dost thou 
believe on the Son of God? " This is the question 
that Jesus addressed to the man who was born 
blind, whose eyes he had opened. The reply was, 
"Who is He, Lord, that I might beheve on Him? 
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen 
Him, and it is He that talketh with thee. And he 
said, Lord, I beheve. And he worshipped Him." 
Some have an intellectual belief in Christ. They 
admit His divinity, acknowledge the purity of His 
character, and accept the belief that He died for 
sinners ; but they do not come to Him that they 
may see ; they do not worship Him as an object of 



I20 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

trust and love ; they do not rely upon and appro- 
priate Him as a personal Saviour, — their Saviour. 
Faith in a guide means more than the belief that 
he is skilful and able ; a guide is serviceable only 
when he is followed. Distrust, inaction, — not 
denial or disbehef, but unbeHef, — keeps many out 
of heaven. 

2. Some are walking in the way of worldly pleas- 
ure. They love their ease ; they cannot think of 
sacrifice and self-denial. The true way involves 
too much of hard toiling and uphill work. They 
wish to enjoy themselves as they go along. They 
do not like the idea of cross-bearing ; it seems hard 
and difficult to live a life of faith and prayer. To 
be constant in public duties, and observant of strict 
proprieties in private life, what a task it must be ! 
To be estopped from hasty utterances, and acts 
a Httle questionable, and amusements somewhat 
doubtful, how trying it must be ! To make a pro- 
fession of religion and undertake to live up to that 
profession, what a burden it must be ! To fellow- 
ship with Christians, and try to walk with them, 
how irksome it must be ! But why should one care 
for the difficulties of the way, if it gets him home? 
He must come home, or perish miserably. Sup- 
pose the way is rough and trying ; if it ends well, 



THE WAY. 121 

is not that enough? And then the hardships are 
not so great as some think. Question that com- 
pany who are walking in this way, and they tell 
you it is easy and pleasant after all. It is not 
the language of complaint, but of song, that you 
hear : — 

" The hill of Zion yields 

A thousand sacred sweets 
Before we reach the heavenly fields, 
Or walk the golden streets." 

Do not pity them till you know how they feel. 
And say, if there is a path all sunny, smooth, 
and beautiful; the trees overshadow it, and the 
birds sing in the branches; flowers open their 
sweet petals and gladden the eye and make the air 
fragrant; there are arbors for rest, and gushing 
fountains, and luscious fruits ; there are lively 
companions, and cheerful songs, and happy voices; 
but that way leads down to a horrid dungeon, or a 
fearful precipice over which all plunge, — is it best 
to walk in that way? But here is another way, — 
rough it may be ; you slip on the rocks ; you are 
torn by the brambles ; you get many bruises and 
scratches ; you faint from exertion, and you are at 
times quite discouraged ; but then you are a lost 
child, and you are simply getting home. Climb 



122 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

these steeps, penetrate these thickets, get beyond 
this rugged way, and you will come where the 
Father's house is, and be folded in the Father's 
bosom. If the true way is rough and leads home, 
and the false way is fair but leads astray, it is 
manifest which way all ought to follow. But the 
true way has its joys, and none know them but 
those who walk that way. Christ's guidance is 
best and right; His hand helps; His presence 
cheers ; His omnipotent energy smooths the rough- 
est path and turns even the valley of Baca into a 
well of joy. 

3. Some are walking in the way of self -righteous- 
ness. This is the most popular way. The way 
of unbeUef is gloomy; it suits only certain minds. 
The way of pleasure is not satisfactory, its good 
things cloy ; and so the multitudes crowd into the 
way of pharisaic self-esteem. Here is where the 
men walk who rely on an external morality for 
salvation. Says one of these, " Do not be so hard 
on me ; I am not so bad a man as you think ; of 
course I could be better ; but then I pay my debts, 
my word is as good as my bond, I beheve in reli- 
gion, I give to objects of benevolence, I patronize 
the church, I am kind to my family, I treat men 
considerately, I am a good citizen, I do business 



THE WAY. 123 

squarely, and I take pains to do nothing that shall 
injure my good name." Do you observe how this 
corresponds with the prayer of the Pharisee, — 
" God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men 
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this 
publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of 
all that I possess "? Thus he was the great-grand- 
sire of the self-righteous now; and their plea is 
but a repetition of his prayer. God does not ask a 
man to call himself bad names, or to charge him- 
self with crimes that he has not committed; but He 
asks him to place no reliance on his own good 
works for salvation. This way is opposed to the 
Christ way. If this path will get a man to heaven, 
then he does not need to walk in any other. These 
good traits no one disputes ; but if they will save a 
man, what does he want of Christ? Good works 
rule out the whole system of grace. You know 
how the Apostle reasons, — ''I am crucified with 
Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me : and the life which I now live in the 
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not frus- 
trate the grace of God : for if righteousness come 
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." The 
better a man tries to make himself out, the more 



124 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

does he take from Christ. If one is in great peril, 
and is rescued by tremendous exertion and at the 
risk of Hfe, it is unkind in him to disparage the 
peril and belittle the grandly humane act. Ah, it 
is better to humble pride, confess unworthiness, 
and admit that it is wholly by Christ that we are 
saved ! Bunyan would not have proved himself a 
master delineator, if he had omitted the man who 
seeks to be saved by the deeds of the law. Chris- 
tian sets out in the right way, but falls in with 
Worldly-Wiseman, who assures him of an easier 
way. " In yonder village — the village is named 
Morality — there dwells a gentleman whose name 
is Legality, a very judicious man, and a man of a 
very good name. He will ease thee of thy burden, 
and if thou art not minded to go back to thy former 
habitation (as indeed I would not wish thee), thou 
mayest send for thy wife and children to thee, to 
this village, where there are houses now standing 
empty, one of which thou mayest have at a rea- 
sonable rate: provision is there also cheap and 
good ; and that which will make thy life the more 
happy is, to be sure there thou shalt live by honest 
neighbors in credit and good fashion." This fair 
speech won Christian, and turned him out of the 
way. He started for Legality's house, but soon 



THE WAY. 125 

got in trouble, and was met by Evangelist, who 
chided him : " That man that met thee is one 
Worldly-Wiseman ; and rightly is he so called : 
partly because he savoreth only of the doctrine of 
this world, I John iv. (therefore he always goes 
to the town of Morality to church) ; and partly 
because he loveth that doctrine best, for it saveth 
him from the cross. Gal. vi. 12; and because he 
is of this carnal temper, therefore he seeketh to 
pervert my ways though right. Now there are 
three things in this man's counsel that thou must 
utterly abhor: {ci) His turning thee out of the 
way; (J)) His laboring to render the cross odious 
to thee ; {c) And his setting thy feet in that way 
that leadeth unto the administration of death." 

4. Some are walking in the way oi formal observ- 
ances. This is the way of superstition and bigotry, 
of church rites, ceremonies, and forms. In this 
road walk the men who care more for r-i-t-e than 
r-i-g-h-t, — the formalists and will-worshippers, who 
think more of an ordinance than they do of the 
spirit and life which it represents. Here is where 
value is put on sacerdotal robes, priestly offices, 
and symbolic forms. The form-worshippers are 
those who regard religion as an outward garniture ; 
who call him most devout who is most famlHar 



126 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

with the missal and the prayer-book, who keeps 
all the saint's days, and during Lent confines him- 
self wholly to fish and eggs. If a man is a little 
profane, a little dishonest, very mean and selfish, 
hasty in his temper, envious and jealous, hard and 
exacting, it goes a great way to balance this if he 
is reverent in his manner and responds well in the 
service. Now, religion is a thing of the heart. We 
may follow the rubric, and not follow Christ ; we 
may make an idol of the Church, and not love 
Him who is its life and head. The kingdom of 
God is within you ; and unless you are renewed 
within, the saintliest vestments will not hide your 
guiltiness or commend you to God. As Jeremy 
Taylor put it, '' You cannot cure a man of the 
colic by brushing his clothes." The formalist 
worships he knows not what. "God is a Spirit: 
and they that worship Him must worship Him in 
spirit and in truth." If one thinks because he has 
been baptized, or because he keeps up an outward 
profession, or is a good churchman, that therefore 
he will be saved, he will find that he is mistaken, 
and that the way he walks in leads down to 
death. 

We say again, the Lord Jesus Christ is our only 
hope and ground of salvation. This He asserts 



THE WAY. 127 

when He says, " I am the way." He says it else- 
where, in other forms. We can reach heaven only 
as we commit our souls to Him ; we cannot climb 
up some other way. We can never come to the 
Father's house, if we walk in the wrong direction. 
Christ is the way ; Christ is the way. Walking in 
this way we find that it is the way of faith, repent- 
ance, and obedience; of self-denial, self-renuncia- 
tion, and holy joy. These are the landmarks that 
evidence that we are in the right way. We must 
not forget our original condition, — that we were like 
a lost child, in a way of darkness and peril, and far 
from home ; or hke the man lost in the catacombs, 
his light gone out, and the clew dropped from his 
hand. He calls for aid ; he gropes in the darkness ; 
he is filled with fear; his strength is gone, and 
none but skeleton forms are near. Faint and de- 
spairing he falls to the ground, when lo, his hand 
touches something ! It is the lost clew ! And now, 
leaping up, he passes to the other extreme — of joy. 
This is Christ to a lost soul. We seize the clew, 
and following it are brought out of a maze of dark- 
ness, danger, and despair, into a new world of light, 
hope, and joy. Yes, Christ is the way. He has 
gone up to His Father's house, where He has pre- 
pared for us the many mansions, and by and by 



128 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

He will come and take us to Himself. Meanwhile 
we wait, watch, and sing: — 

" Jesus my all to heaven is gone, — 
He whom I fix my hopes upon ; 
His track I see, and I '11 pursue 
The narrow way till Him I view. 

" The way the Holy prophets went, 
The road that leads from banishment, 
The King's highway of hoHness, — 
I '11 go, for all His paths are peace. 

" This is the way I long have sought. 
And mourned because I found it not; 
My grief, my burden long has been, 
Because I could not cease from sin. 

" The more I strove against its power, 
I sinned and stumbled but the more ; 
Till late I heard my Saviour say, 
Come hither, soul, ' I am the way.' 

" Lo, glad I come ! and Thou, blest Lamb, 
Shalt take me to Thee as I am ; 
Nothing but sin I Thee can give. 
Nothing but love shall I receive. 

*'Then will I tell to sinners round. 
What a dear Saviour I have found ; 
I '11 point to Thy redeeming blood. 
And say, ' Behold the way to God. " 



ftje f rue Ei0i)t 



" I HEARD the voice of Jesus say, 

I am this dark world's light ; 
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise, 

And all thy day be bright. 
I looked to Jesus, and I found 

In Him my Star, my Sun ; 
And in that light of life I '11 walk 

Till all my journey 's done." 



XI. 

THE TRUE LIGHT. 

" That was the true Light." — John i. 9. 

'^ I ''HERE are false lights. The wrecker lights a 
-■- false beacon on a rocky coast, and beguiles 
ships at sea. The pilot is misled, and steering, as 
he supposes, away from danger, is drawn into the 
snare, and the proud vessel, that has outridden 
many a tempest, is dashed upon the rocks, and its 
precious cargo falls a prey to fiendish men. There 
is a false light called " ignis fatuus," or *' deceitful 
light," which, appearing in the night over marshy 
grounds, and where phosphoric matter is exhaled 
from decaying animal and vegetable substances, is 
not only a cause of fright, but a means of rnislead- 
ing the lost traveller, and taking him farther out of 
his way. He thinks he is coming to some friendly 
light or hospitable dwelling, but he is led into the 
deepest forest, where wild animals lurk, or he is 
mired in a sedgy fen, or precipitated down a cleft 



132 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

of the mountain. Christ is the true light. He 
shines on this darkened world, to guide, to save, 
and to bless. 

The fitness of this figure is evident. Persons of 
distinction are spoken of in the Scriptures under 
the emblem of light. The King of Babylon is ad- 
dressed as *' Lucifer, son of the morning." The pas- 
tors of the seven churches are called "the seven 
stars." God, in revealing Himself to men, made use 
of light. He spake to Moses out of the burning 
bush and in the lightnings of Sinai. He went be- 
fore the Jews in the wilderness as a pillar of fire 
by night. He abode for hundreds of years as the 
shekinah or visible glory above the ark in the 
Tabernacle and Temple. It was with dazzling light 
that He manifested Himself to Paul at his conver- 
sion, making him blind for three days. It was as 
one who walks amid the golden candlesticks, that 
the Son of Man revealed Himself to John in his 
vision at Patmos. Of heaven, it is written, " The 
city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, 
to shine in it ; for the glory of God did lighten it, 
and the Lamb is the light thereof; " *' And there 
shall be no night there ; and they need no candle, 
neither light of the sun ; for the Lord God giveth 
them light." Of the Divine Being Himself it is 



THE TRUE LIGHT. 133 

written, *' God is light, and in Him is no darkness 
at all." 

Light, in the Scriptures, is the emblem of wis- 
dom and knowledge, of purity and truth, of pros- 
perity and happiness ; as darkness is the emblem 
of whatever is the opposite of these. It seems 
natural that this figure should be applied to Christ. 
Prophecy spoke of Him as a " Star that should 
arise ; " and He said of Himself, " I am come a 
light into the world, that whosoever believeth in 
Me should not walk in darkness ; " '* I am the light 
of the world." It is said of the forerunner of Christ, 
" He was not that Light, but was sent to bear wit- 
ness of that Light. That was the true Light, which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 

We may not stop to observe how the perfec- 
tions of which light is typical centre in Christ, 
or to compare His teachings — pure, simple, light- 
imparting, and soul-saving — with the teachings of 
false Christs, whose words obscure, befog, produce 
unrest, make the darkness greater, and lead to end- 
less pain. 

Let us notice some things suggested by light. 

I. Light speaks to us of Hope. The sick man 
lies in his darkened chamber longing for the day. 
By and by the gray streaks of the morning steal 



134 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

through his curtained window. He hears the 
robin's call, and catches sounds of stirring foot- 
steps. Oh, what rest it is, to have a long dark 
night pass away! So on this darkened world 
Christ has arisen. We may call Him Day-spring, 
or Day-star ; for it is by His coming that we have 
hope of an eternal day. When the despairing cry 
is raised, ''Watchman, what of the night?" it is 
He who enables the heralds on the towers to cry, 
*'The morning cometh; the morning cometh." 
Were it not for Christ, this world would be with- 
out hope. An endless night of misery, helpless- 
ness, and sin would shut us in. We might peer 
into the darkness, and cry, ''When will the day 
dawn?" but there would be no word of encourage- 
ment, no glimmer of hope, no ray of promise. 
But, blessed be God ! we are not thus hopeless. 
With Zacharias we can sing, "The Day-spring 
from on high hath visited us, to give light to them 
that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to 
guide our feet into the way of peace." 

2. Light is typical of Progress. Gently, yet 
steadily, the sun mounts upward in the sky. " He 
cometh forth out of his chamber as a bridegroom, 
and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His 
going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his 



THE TRUE LIGHT. 1 35 

circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid 
from the heat thereof." So the Sun of Righteous- 
ness rises and shines on our fallen world. With the 
same steady, increasing, subduing power He pushes 
back the night of darkness, dispels the fogs and 
clouds of error, and pours the light of truth on all 
of human kind. The world is hastening to its final 
consummation, and shall sometime see the noon- 
tide brightness of the millennial day. 

'^ Sun, moon, and stars convey Thy praise 
Round the whole earth, and never stand ; 
So, when Thy truth began its race, 
It touched and glanced on every land. 

"Nor shall Thy spreading gospel rest, 

Till through the world Thy truth has run ; 
Till Christ has all the nations blessed. 
That see the light or feel the sun." 

Similar progress is to be seen in each individual 
soul. *' The path of the just is as the shining light, 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 
Of every regenerated person it may be said : — 

" His course he begins, 
Like the sun in a mist, while he mourns for his sins. 
And melts into tears ; then he breaks out and shines, 

And travels his heavenly way : 
But when he comes nearer to finish his race. 
Like a fine setting sun, he looks richer in grace, 
And gives a sure hope, at the end of his days, 

Of rising in brighter array." 



136 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

3. Light is essential to Life. Blot out the sun, 
and you have no centre of attraction ; the planets 
leap from their orbits, and like the crash of col- 
liding cars in a dark night, all material things are 
wrecked. Or if not this, an impenetrable darkness 
would overspread the world. The eye would search 
in vain for the objects that please it; there would 
be no glory in the heavens, no beauty on the earth. 
Think of the human family struck with blindness ! 
But more than this, not anything could live ; in 
total darkness every living thing must die. Nor 
would it be the silence of a common graveyard, 
but such as overtook Sir John Franklin, and others 
who have perished since at the North Pole. It is 
the shining of the sun that holds our winters in 
check, and that melts the icy fetters in which the 
earth is bound. But for this the fruits of the 
ground would be withheld ; the flowers would cease 
to bloom, the trees no longer array themselves in 
their leafy vesture; the fields would become a 
barren waste, and men and cattle, fowl and creep- 
ing thing would die. More than this, not only 
darkness, but mountain drifts of ice and snow 
would inwrap the world. It is not always summer 
now, because the earth changes its position with 
respect to the sun. The deviation of its orbit from 



THE TRUE LIGHT. 1 37 

the plane of the ecliptic causes the fierce blasts, 
the deep snows, the leafless trees, and the fettered 
streams of winter. Can we imagine what would 
be, were there no sun? But more than what the 
orb of day is to this material world, is Christ to 
the souls of men. O Sun of Righteousness, Thyself 
the source of light, the centre of spiritual attrac- 
tion, the regulating power in the moral creation, 
whose presence makes us see, whose- influence 
gives us life, we adore Thee with all the powers of 
our being ! When the light that emanates from 
Thee falls upon our darkened vision, it makes us 
see. The world grows more beautiful; Christian 
faces look more lovely; the Bible becomes lumi- 
nous ; crosses become pleasures ; and duties that 
seemed arduous become attractive and light. 

4. Light is an emblem of Joy. When our hearts 
are heavy, we are ready to exclude the sun. We 
draw down the curtains in the sick-chamber ; and 
when death enters our dwelling, we hang a black 
signal on the door-knob, shut the blinds, and sit 
down in the general darkness. Sorrow seems to 
find in things that are sombre that with which to 
solace itself. Disappointment turns to the cloister 
and the cell; pining grief goes out to meditate 
among the tombs. But joy requires Hght. The 



138 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

social party, the wedding company, demands bright 
colors, and if it is in the night, a full blaze of light ; 
if it is in the day, we prefer a sunny rather than a 
sombre sky. The morning lark welcomes the new- 
born day ; and all the birds of the wood lift their 
song when the storm is spent and heavy rain- 
clouds pass away. 

In like manner Christ is the source of joy. His 
coming dispels the night of death that hung upon 
the world; His coming fills our individual souls 
with light. We watch with the shepherds on Beth- 
lehem's plains, and lo ! the angel of the Lord comes 
down, and glory shines around ; and this is what 
he says : " Behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto 
you is born this day, in the city of David, a Sa- 
viour, which is Christ the Lord." We rise to the 
grandeur of the announcement, and blend our 
ardent voices in the angelic hallelujah, '' Glory to 
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will 
toward men ! " Oh, how should we rejoice that 
the Day-star has arisen, and that the true light now 
shineth ! See, the fulfilment of that prophecy, — 
*' Unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of 
Righteousness arise with healing in His wings." 
This is the true light ; this is the light that gives 



THE TRUE LIGHT. 1 39 

gladness ; this is the Hght that fills the world with 
joy. If we are not happy, it is because we are too 
far away from the source of joy, or because we 
have shut out the light that would give us joy. 
We must trim our lamps, and get the oil of grace, 
and keep near to the fountain-head, and then we 
shall not lack for light, or be in darkness. We 
should get help from the ordinances, and especially 
cling close to Christ, and then will our hearts be 
sunny and our lives luminous. It is the light 
streaming from the cross that dispels the mists of 
sin, and makes the believer's heart resonant with 
gladness. We read of the fabled Memnon, the 
sounding statue at Thebes, which for hundreds of 
years was said to give out a joyful utterance when 
the first rays of the morning illumined its stony 
face. So the Sun of Righteousness, shining on hu- 
man hearts, makes the countenance radiant, and 
evokes a song whose every note is an utterance 
of joy. 

5. The True Light never can be put out. Human 
lights fail ; they are often disappointing ; they 
sometimes are wanting and treacherous to ships at 
sea. Human lamps must be replenished, and hu- 
man things must sooner or later come to an end. 
There was an ancient city, Heliopolis — city of 



140 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

the sun — by name. It was situated in Egypt, 
near the Nile. It was founded two thousand years 
before Christ, and is fabled to have been the city 
of Moses. Here also it is thought Joseph and 
Mary brought the infant Jesus. In that city was 
the oracle of Apollo, and a famous temple of the 
sun. Here was centred the highest wisdom of the 
world. Hither came Herodotus, Plato, Eudoxus, 
and others, and imbibed much of the learning for 
which they became renowned. But the light of 
that city long since went out; the soil of centuries 
covers its ruined temples, and but a single obelisk 
remains to show where that city stood. So must 
it be with all that is human and earthly. Our 
lights are but consuming candles, while the True 
Light knows no diminution^ and shall reach no 
end. 

6. If Christ is light, it is expected that His people 
will be light also. He is the central light ; we are 
the reflectors about Him. He is the Sun ; we are 
the planets that borrow and reflect His rays. We 
read : " Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are 
ye light in the Lord ; walk as children of light ; " 
*' If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk 
in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth ; " *' Let 
your light so shine before men that they may see 



THE TRUE LIGHT. I4I 

your good works, and glorify your Father which is 
in heaven." 

7. If men are in darkness it is their own fault. 
They go into the cellar, and insist that the sun has 
set ; they close the blinds, and claim that there is 
no sun. What they should do is to come up into 
the light ; open the shutters and let the sun in. 
None need walk in darkness, roll sightless eyeballs, 
and grope their way along. To men blinded by 
sin Christ comes, and says, as He said to Bartimeus, 
''What wilt thou that I shall do?" If they would 
respond with Bartimeus, " Lord, that I may receive 
my sight," they, too, would see. Alas, that any 
should live in darkness, and dying go where oppor- 
tunities cease, and no ray of hope ever shines ! It 
is said of the poet Goethe, after a long life of 
worldliness and unbelief, that his last words were, 
'* It is growing dark ; open the shutters, and let 
the light in." It is too late to call for light, when 
life and strength fail, and the windows of the soul 
are darkened by the shadows of a near dissolution. 

8. Let men guard against m.istaking a false for 
the True Light. The sea is dangerous, and the night 
is dark. Along these coasts are fiendish wreckers, 
and it is possible to fall into their snare. Not every 
beacon is lighted by a friendly hand. The Hght 



142 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

that glows most brightly may be a decoy to lead 
one into the wrong way. Let us be sure that the 
beams that reach us come from the Father's light- 
house and are the true light; and steering by 
this, wreckers, rocks, and storms shall bring us no 
harm. Happy the man, who, having escaped the 
dangers, can say : — 

" Once on the raging seas I rode ; 

The storm was loud, the night was dark, 
The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed 

The wind, that tossed my foundering bark. 

" Deep horror then my vitals froze; 

Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem; 
When suddenly a star arose, — 
It was the Star of Bethlehem. 

" It was my guide, my hght, my all ; 
It bade my dark forebodings cease; 
And, through the storm, and danger's thrall, 
It led me to the port of peace. 

" Now, safely moored, my perils o'er, 
I ^11 sing, first in night's diadem ; 
Forever and forevermore, 
The Star — the Star of Bethlehem." 



trije Kose anti Itil^. 



" Behold the rose of Sharon here, 
The lily which the valleys bear ; 
Behold the tree of life, that gives 
Refreshing fruit and healing leaves." 

"By cool Siloam's shady rill, 
How sweet the lily grows ! 
How sweet the breath, beneath the hill, 
Of Sharon's dewy rose ! " 



xir. 

THE ROSE AND LILY. 

" I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys." — 
Song of Solomon ii. i. 

T T is natural to love flowers. Some people know 
-■- them by name and pet them as living crea- 
tures. Flowers certainly are beautiful, and there 
are many lessons to be learned from them. We 
can hardly imagine what this world would be with- 
out flowers. Mary Howitt writes : — 

" God might have bade the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small, — 
The oak-tree and the cedar-tree, 
Without a flower at all. 

" He might have made enough, enough 
For every want of ours, — 
For luxury, medicine, and toil, 
And yet have made no flowers. 

" Our outward hfe requires them not, — 
Then wherefore have they birth ? 
To minister delight to man, 
To beautify the earth. 

10 



146 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST, 

" To comfort man, — to whisper hope, 
Whene'er his faith is dim ; 
For whoso careth for the flowers, 
Will much more care for him." 



There are many points of resemblance between 
Christ and the flowers. He said, "■ Behold the 
lilies." Let us do so The words, '' I am the rose 
of Sharon and the lily of the valleys," are ascribed 
to Christ; this is what He says of Himself. Ancient 
Sharon extended from Mount Carmel on the north 
to Joppa on the south, — about sixty miles along 
the Mediterranean coast. It was the western por- 
tion of Samaria, — Galilee being above and Judea 
below. The soil is spoken of as being highly pro- 
ductive, and the plain was famous for its fertility 
and beauty. Isaiah, predicting the joyful flourish- 
ing of Christ's kingdom, says : *' The desert shall 
rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom 
abundantly, and rejoice, even with joy and singing; 
the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the 
excellency of Carmel and Sharon." 

An American missionary who visited Sharon 
many years ago wrote of it: "The whole valley, 
from the mountains of Jerusalem to the sea, and 
from the foot of Carmel to the hills of Gaza, 
is spread before you like a painted map, and is 



THE ROSE AND LILY. 1 47 

extremely beautiful ; especially at evening, when the 
last rays of the setting sun gild the distant moun- 
tain-tops, the weary husbandman returns from his 
labors, and the bleating flocks come frisking and 
joyful to their fold. At such a time I saw it, and 
lingered long in pensive meditation, until the stars 
looked out from the sky, and the cool breezes of 
evening began to shed soft dews on the feverish 
land. What a paradise was here, when Solomon 
reigned in Jerusalem and sang of the roses of 
Sharon ! " 

In the Mishna of the Rabbins, which embodies 
the oral or second law of the Jews, Sharon is 
spoken of as having a soil peculiarly adapted to 
the growth of roses. We are told, also, that large 
fields of these are cultivated for the sake of their 
perfumes, which constitute an important branch of 
Eastern commerce. 

In thinking of Christ under the figure of flowers, 
much occurs to us. 

I. If you should enter a conservatory, your first 
thought, probably, would be, What an immense 
number of flowers ! We are told that by culti- 
vation two hundred varieties of roses have been 
produced. And then think how numberless the 
names, hues, and forms of the whole world of 



148 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

flowers ! How many families there are ! Some 
flowers are large and coarse, and some are tiny 
and delicate. And where is the spot where flowers 
do not breathe their fragrance and smile in beauty? 
The Great Being who made them seems to have 
thrown them out with a lavish hand. Even in the 
wilderness, where no foot of man has trod, they 
have a home and being. 

" Full many a gem of purest ray serene, 

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; 
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 

The springtime furnishes an " overplus of blos- 
soms." The showering petals of the orchard are 
a type of God's bountifulness. The flowers speak 
to us of the grace of Christ. It falls on all people. 
*' Abounding grace " is a favorite expression. We 
read, '' Where sin abounded, grace did much more 
abound." Our state is a sinful one ; our world is 
like a garden where a heavy frost has fallen, or like 
a field where noxious weeds are growing. Jesus 
comes in love and undertakes a work of recovery. 
He establishes His church, and gathers into it all 
who are willing to receive Him as a personal 
Saviour. This is His garden where the plants of 
grace grow. To be sure, a flower may grow by 



THE ROSE AND LILY. 1 49 

the wayside, or a vegetable may live a stray life 
out in the field ; but it will not get the attention or 
cultivation that it would receive if it were directly 
under the gardener's eye. So the plants of grace 
may exist out of the church, but the church is the 
place for them. This is the cleared spot where the 
best growth is attained. 

" We are a garden walled around, 
Chosen, and made peculiar ground ; 
A little spot, enclosed by grace, 
Out of the world's wide wilderness." 

But the garden is a growing one, and in time it 
will be coextensive with the earth. Prophecy de- 
clares : " The Lord shall comfort Zion : He will 
comfort all her waste places ; and He will make her 
wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the gar- 
den of the Lord." " For as the earth bringeth forth 
her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that 
are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord will 
cause righteousness and praise to spring forth be- 
fore all the nations." In anticipation of that time 
we sing : — 

" No more let sins and sorrows grow. 
Nor thorns infest the ground ; 
He comes to make His blessings flow. 
Far as the curse is found." 



150 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

2. You are struck with the beauty and fragrance 
of the flowers. You call them lovely, and you are 
pleased to look at them and to inhale their odors. 
Now, there is no character so lovely as that of 
Jesus, and there is no name so precious to those 
that love Him. 

" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 
In a believer's ear ! 
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 
And drives away his fear, 

*' It makes the wounded spirit whole, 
And calms the troubled breast ; 
'T is manna to the hungry soul. 
And to the weary, rest. 

*' Weak is the effort of my heart, 
And cold my warmest thought ; 
But when I see Thee as Thou art, 
I '11 praise Thee as I ought. 

" Till then I would Thy love proclaim 
With every fleeting breath ; 
And may the music of Thy name 
Refresh my soul in death." 

There is no beauty like moral beauty, and Jesus 
possessed this in the highest degree. His people 
are expected to be like Him, and their lives must 
blossom with the flowers of grace, and bend with 
the weight of fruit too. Flowers have a language, 



THE ROSE AND LILY. 151 

and when given with the Christ spirit they symbol- 
ize the loving nature of the gospel, and the brother- 
hood of man. There are Flower Missions ; Flower 
Sunday is coming to be observed in various places ; 
we go forth with flowers, and bend lovingly over 
the graves of our patriot dead. Some who sleep 
in those graves used to sing on the march : — 

" In the beauty of the Hlies, 

Christ was born across the sea ; 

With a glory in His bosom 

Which transfigures you and me j 

As He died to make men holy, 
Let us die to make men free, 

While God is marching on." 

It is the habit with some wealthy Christian gen- 
tlemen to take flowers into the city from their con- 
servatories, for the benefit of the sick in hospitals. 
A city missionary connected with one of the large 
churches gave a potted flower to every child in his 
Sunday school, to be loved and cared for, and 
shown to him when he should call upon them in 
their humble homes in the back alleys and the 
crowded tenement-houses. In this way he not only 
softened and refined the children and made them 
think of him, but especially of that greater friend, 
who calls Himself the rose of Sharon and the lily 
of the valleys. 



152 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

Thus far flowers have suggested to us the bounti- 
fulness of grace and the spirit of the gospel. 

3. All agree that there is great attractiveness in 
flowers. You love them so well that you want to 
possess them ; you are drawn towards them. You 
take them into your house in winter ; you think of 
them, watch them, and pet them daily. In the city 
they will get a little window garden, or space off a 
spot on the roof, or somewhere, that they may cul- 
tivate flowers. Even artificial flowers become an 
article of commerce, and are worn for their beauty. 
Thus God has made beautiful things, and made us 
to love beautiful things. At Niagara Falls the spot 
is pointed out where a young lady lost her life in 
her great desire to possess a beautiful wild flower 
growing on the brink of a precipice. Her mind 
was on the flower; she ventured too far, and was 
dashed upon the rocks below. Stories similar are 
told of the chamois-hunter. A traveller writes: 
" Among the most daring deeds of his life is the 
obtaining of the Edelvveis, — a flower met with 
only on some of the highest mountains in certain 
parts of Tyrol and Bavaria. It is much valued for 
the snowy purity of its color, as well as on account 
of the difficulty of getting it. The very name, 
' noble purity,' has a charm about it ; and strangely 



THE ROSE AND LILY. 153 

enough It always grows in a spot to be reached 
only with the utmost peril. You will see a tuft of 
its beautifully white flowers overhanging a preci- 
pice, or waving on a perpendicular wall of rock, to 
be approached but by a ledge where perhaps a 
chamois could hardly stand. But it is this very 
difficulty of acquisition which gives the flower so 
peculiar a value, and impels many a hunter to 
brave the danger, that he may get a posy of 
Edelweis for the hat or breast of his lady-love; 
and often has such an one fallen over the rocks 
just as he had reached it, and been found dead, 
with the flower of such fatal beauty still held firmly 
grasped." 

Nothing draws like love. One of the mottoes in 
heraldry is, ''Nil durum amanti," — nothing hard 
to the one loving. What will not love attempt or 
overcome ! Now, Jesus is the highest embodiment 
of love. Missionaries and martyrs toil and suff"er, 
saying, '* The love of Christ constraineth us." The 
attractions to Christ are the strongest that we can 
feel. It is said, *' He shall draw all men unto 
Him." Each renewed heart feels this intense love 
to Christ; it sees in Him heights and depths that 
are beyond measurement. It loves with the love 
of Mary; it serves with the zeal of Paul. 



154 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

"Amongst the thorns so lilies shine ; 
Amongst wild gourds the noble vine ; 
So in my eyes my Saviour proves, 
Amidst a thousand meaner loves." 



4. Flowers are suggestive of purity. The lily, 
especially, is distinguished for its whiteness, and is, 
in the East, and also with us, an emblem of that 
which is spotless and pure. It is supposed to have 
been sacred to the light. The lotus, which re- 
sembles it, and which some think to be identical' 
with it, is known to have been a sacred emblem 
in Egypt and other parts of the East. Hence it 
was that the ancient columns, and other sculptures 
of Egypt, PersepoHs, and India were ornamented 
with work in imitation of it. " Being sacred to 
light," says one, **it was so to Christ: and this 
perhaps accounts best for the so frequent use of lily- 
work in the Temple, and in the dresses of the high- 
priest." Thus we read : " The chapiters that were 
upon the top of the pillars were of lily-work in the 
porch, four cubits." " And he made a molten sea, 
a hand-breadth thick, and the brim thereof was 
wrought like the brim of a cup with flowers of 
lilies." 

5. The lily of the valley speaks of humility. 
Jesus " humbled Himself." *' In His humiliation His 



THE ROSE AND LILY. 1 55 

judgment was taken away." "He was meek and 
lowly in heart." To be Christ-like we must bend 
low. " He that humbleth himself shall be ex- 
alted." " Before honor is humility." This is the 
bottom grace; the lowest round in the ladder is 
humility. You cannot pluck the lily of the valley 
on the mountains. You must leave the heights of 
pride, you must come down into the valley, if you 
would find Christ. 

6. A property of flowers is healing. Some plants 
are valued for the perfumes, some for the medica- 
ments, and some for the food they furnish. From 
the frequent reference to *' feeding among hlies," 
in the Song of Solomon, it is thought, by some, 
that the lily mentioned was the same as that which 
grows in Egypt in the Nile, the stalk and kernel of 
which are still used as an article of diet. The great 
value of plants lies, however, in their medicinal 
properties, and these they generally possess. The 
heahng art may be said to have begun with flowers. 
Now, Jesus is the world's great remedy for sin. He 
is the '' balm in Gilead," the '' plant of renown," the 
'' tree of life." He is both cure and curer ; He is the 
great Physician, and He furnishes the remedies that 
heal and make alive. It was humanity's call that 
brought Him to our world. Seeing our need. He 



156 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

came to check and remove the disease of sin, and 
to give moral soundness to the soul. But you must 
take His medicine or die. The highest skill will not 
avail ; the sure remedy is of no use, if you do not 
employ or take it. Looking at medicine saves no 
one. Beholding Christ in ordinances, and hearing 
of His grace, will only aggravate your condemna- 
tion, if you do not confess your need and ask 
Christ to help and save you. 

7. It is a pleasant thought that Christ is so easy 
of access. He does not liken Himself to the flower 
that grows upon the edge of the precipice or the 
brow of the mountain, but to the ** rose of Sharon " 
and the ''lily of the valley," — flowers that lie open 
to all. Nor is He like the flowers of a city park, 
or a king's garden, or a private enclosure. There 
is no law forbidding to pluck ; no stone wall or iron 
paling to keep back; no law of trespass saying, 
" You may look, but you shall not take." The 
flowers of the field are ours ; the valley requires no 
climbing. Oh, blessed grace of God ! The provis- 
ion is open ; salvation is free ! Pilgrimages are not 
required; self-inflictions are not called for; money, 
you need none! It is a ''free gift," you can have 
it for the asking; but you must ask and take it 
with an empty hand. The king throws open his 



THE ROSE AND LILY. 1 57 

royal garden, and says, '' Enter, and bear away what 
you will." But you must, at least, enter and use 
your own powers of choice; no one is forced to 
enter; no one has grace thrust upon him. You 
must come where the flowers grow, and say to 
the royal owner, " Please, let me take ; " and the 
gift of God, which is eternal life, becomes yours 
to enjoy. 

8. Receiving this gift, you adorn yourself with 
it. As you would feel honored if a royal person 
should pluck one of his choicest flowers and say, 
" Wear this for me ; " so you will accept this gift of 
grace, and " put on the Lord Jesus Christ " in lov- 
ing fellowship with and likeness to Him, and in an 
open profession of religion. There are many badges 
that men wear. Every society and order has its 
mystic letters, medals, and symbols; so we have 
something to put on. It is so natural to wear some- 
thing in the way of ornament, — a bit of arbutus 
or a spray of apple-blossoms ! So, what can be 
more beautiful and appropriate than an open ac- 
knowledgment of Him, who as the Lord Christ 
presents Himself to us under the figure of a flower? 
As the shepherds and shepherdesses, in olden times, 
decked themselves with roses and lilies, with gar- 
lands and chaplets of flowers, so we are to wear, in 



158 SIMILITUDES OF CHRIST. 

love and pride, as the evidence of our discipleship, 
"The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is 
in the sight of God of great price." This, too, will 
honor Him whose now we claim to be. It is true 
that one may possess a flower, and put it in a dark 
closet; he may own a badge, and keep it in his 
bureau drawer ; but the true place for the flower is 
where it shall be seen ; and the true place for the 
badge is where it shall make known the order to 
which we belong, and the service we are supposed 
to render. It is too bad that any should claim 
to be Christians, and yet not show piety enough to 
have it discovered ; or that any should claim to have 
a hope of eternal life through Christ, and yet not 
be wiUing to confess His name ! 

So we have viewed Christ under various aspects 
and forms. And now, what is the feeling that fills 
our breasts, only that, employ whatever figures we 
will, and view Him as we will, He is incomparably 
glorious? Nothing can describe Him; nothing can 
proclaim His greatness or express His worth ! No, 
it is not possible to set forth the majestic glory, the 
supreme excellence, the infinite love, that centre 
in Christ. Eternity itself shall not exhaust the 
theme. It is related of a deceased minister, that 



THE ROSE AND LILY. 1 59 

he preached for six months upon the text, '' Be- 
hold, I stand at the door and knock." Six of his 
sermons were upon the single word " I." It is that 
*' I " which fills the hearts and occupies the tongues 
of the angelic and -the redeemed. It is a little 
word, but it suggests a subject for thought and 
praise as inexhaustible as the being and character 
of God, — as lasting as His eternal throne. 

May God bring sinful men to understand their 
relation to this Christ, and so to appreciate His 
grace, and act in view of it, as to place them 
among His ardent friends, making their present life 
one of faithful service and holy joy, and bringing 
them at length to that home of the blest, where no 
more through a glass darkly, but in the clear light 
of heaven, they shall see Him face to face. 



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